How can we help? Contact us
The government has issued measures, that will make it possible to defer the payment of VAT to the Dutch tax authorities (Belastingdienst). Grant Thornton may assist you in this respect.
Deferment of payment for payment problems due to the effects of the corona crisis
You may use this crisis measure if you temporarily cannot pay your VAT payment to the Belastingdienst.
In first instance a letter in which a request is made for deferment of payment will suffice. In that letter a deferral is requested due to payment problems because of the corona crisis. After receipt of the request the Belastingdienst will cease its debt collecting measures and an immediate deferment of payment shall be granted to the entrepreneur for a period of 3 months. In the immediate future the Belastingdienst will not impose fines for non or late payment or will annul these.
Note that this request must be made after an (additional) assessment VAT (for non-paying the VAT) has been issued. This means e.g. that the request – assuming a VAT return over February 2020 is filed showing an amount payable – should be made after receipt of the additional assessment, which shall be issued at the earliest in mid-April 2020.
For a further delay, after these 3 months, additional conditions need to be met. A more reasoned request should then be filed. In order to be able to use this (further) arrangement, one must – how this must be done and how this can be realized with as little administrative burden as possible is now under research of the government and will be clarified in due course – submit a declaration of a third party expert that shows that:
The last two statements in particular carry a lot of weight. These statements only apply if you need a delay of more than three months (so at the end of June at the earliest), thus, we expect further clarification to arrive on the exact meaning of these statements.
As third-party expert may be considered an external consultant, an external financer, a branch organization or the accountant or financial advisor.
In addition to this, the government will reduce the interest rates due to (non-) payment from 4% to virtually nil, 0,01%.
Should VAT be due abroad, we believe that there is a good chance that also in that country measures have been taken to assist you through this difficult period. Due to the number of measures, which also are amended on a daily basis, we recommend you to or your relationship manager at Grant Thornton.