International accounting

Virtually all Dutch corporations are legally obliged to keep an administration, prepare and file annual accounts, and to file annual corporate income tax returns.

A compulsory audit is only required for Dutch companies that have a certain volume, in terms of turnover, asset value and number of employees, or companies which are listed at a stock exchange.

The accounts must be prepared in accordance with Dutch GAAP but it is also possible to prepare the accounts on the basis of IFRS. If the accounts are prepared on the basis of IFRS, this automatically means that the accounts will have to be audited. Most Dutch companies prepare their accounts on the basis of Dutch GAAP.

Furthermore, qualifying small companies can also opt to prepare their annual accounts in accordance with Dutch tax principles to simplify the process of the preparing their annual accounts and corporate tax return.

An abbreviated version of the annual accounts must be filed with the Chamber of Commerce for publication in the Trade Register. The deadline for filing varies per legal form.

The financial statements form the basis for the annual corporate income tax return. Tax principles to be applied for determining taxable profits can differentiate from Dutch GAAP, which may result in temporary or permanent differences, for which defferred tax provisions may have to be accounted for.

Various software packages are available for online accounting. Our online accounting software, includes a dashboard which can (but does not need to) be accessed and operated by employees of our clients directly, and offers amongst others;

• a scanning tool (to import invoices directly into the administration),
• an invoicing module,
• a bank/payment module,
• automated output for tax returns,
• automated import payroll data,
• links to various ERP systems and various sourcing and reporting tools.

Our finance and tax team has extensive experience with administrating Dutch corporations and to the prepare their annual accounts on the basis of Dutch GAAP, Dutch tax principles, or IFRS, and to deal with the reporting and filing obligations in relation thereto.