Background
My career began in tax advisory for multinationals with a substantial Dutch presence: structures, cross-border questions, and their consequences in both the short and the long term.
After that came the move to the other side of the advice: in-house at a multinational. There the emphasis lay on tax solutions to operational business issues, and as a board member I held the responsibility for the Dutch tax position.
Those different vantage points produced two insights that shaped this practice. First: well-reasoned advice is worth little without implementation and follow-up; it only pays off once it lands in practice. And second: tax consequences follow from the business model and the actual activities, not the other way round. Without knowing the business, the tax position cannot be assessed.
In practice
Because tax consequences follow from the operational side of the business, the analysis starts from a business point of view: what activities take place, how does the money flow, and what are the risks. Only on that basis can the tax position can be properly assessed. Structures whose complexity is the point, or that only hold up as long as nobody looks closely, tend to carry too much risk and prove unsustainable over time.
Who this is for
Freelancers and new businesses
Your first or recurring tax obligations, such as the VAT return or the income tax return. But also the choices that matter: ‘eenmanszaak’ (sole proprietorship) or BV; converting to a BV; and the tax consequences of a first employee or investment. Choices that look small at the start but can have an impact for years.
Business owners with a BV
Dividend or salary; the mandatory director’s salary; whether a holding structure adds anything; and what changes for tax purposes with a second location or a first employee across the border. With bookkeeping, annual accounts and returns running alongside each other, the administrative effort is lower and the result of the advice lands in the annual accounts and the filings.
Expats and foreign business owners
Income from more than one country, assets held elsewhere, or a Dutch BV whose owner lives abroad. Questions that rarely stop at one tax system, and where the Dutch rules are only half the answer.
Private individuals
Buying a first home, a property abroad, assets in box 3, emigration, or an estate with a foreign element. Situations where the pre-completed return no longer covers it.
Donker