In the event you have been dismissed from employment in 2013 or earlier and you received a severance payment that you have stalled in a BV company (stamrecht BV), then 2014 might be the year for you to clean up house.
Since 2014 it is no longer possible to start a Stamrecht BV. A Stamrecht BV is a Dutch limited liability company in which you put the gross amount of your severance payment. The obligation you have is to pay yourself a pension when the pension age has arrived. Until and up to that time your Stamrecht BV need to meet certain fiscal build up criteria. When these criteria are not met, the tax office assumes you consumed the gross amount already and it will be taxed at 52% plus a 20% penalty tax, total 72% tax.
Annually you spend money on your accountant to process the bookkeeping, to make the calculations, help you with the minutes of the shareholders meeting, file the corporate income tax return and publish the report with the Chambers of Commerce. Accountants do not work for free as you might have noticed.
Why no settle with the tax office and terminate the Stamrecht BV?
That is an option and the Dutch Government would like to encourage you by providing a 20% tax free amount, if the severance payment was deposited before November 14, 2013 in the BV company. This 20% discount is only for 2014 and no signals have been send that this might also be the case on other years.
If you have not already used the amount via withdrawing’s from the BV company, then this might be a solution. However, if you already drained some of the money for private spending, you might have a problem. If you do not know what applies to you, then you certainly need to investigate your options this year.
