The privacy rules that have existed for years and were recently updated to a pan European rule instead of 28 separate rules have effect on the VAT number of entrepreneurs.
Value Added Tax numbers for entrepreneurs and privacy – simple becomes issue
The privacy rules make the your BSN number (your private tax number) a special privacy aspect that needs to be guarded more than for instance you date of birth. As the Dutch tax office has for years used your BSN as your VAT number by simply putting B01 behind the number, this number can no longer be used.
New Value Added Tax numbers for entrepreneurs and privacy – future
Due to the fact that a VAT number is printed on stationary, used by customers or clients within the EU to invoice you at zero percent VAT etc. The tax office cannot decide to issue a new VAT number. Instead, the Government organization in charge of the privacy rules, Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, has summoned the Dutch tax office to solve this issue.
The Dutch tax office now has a serious issue, as the BSN is a number that can be seen as a root throughout the system based on which they work. How can they issue new numbers to entrepreneurs who have an identical number for VAT purposes, and keep up with the history of the person in their system. I would not know the answer, but the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens has made it clear it needs to be solve soon.
New BSN numbers – warning
With chaos comes opportunities, but this time for fraudulent types in society. The issue of new tax numbers can create the possibility for fraudulent types to ask you via telephone with nice voices, corporate emails or other ways for details such as your BSN number and date of birth for reference or whatever. Do not provide any of this information and in case of doubt first contact your tax advisor before you do anything. Even if the person states that you cannot contact your tax advisor due to a timing issue, you simply do not accept such limited timing in such a delicate issue.
Orange Tax Services
Value Added Tax numbers for entrepreneurs and privacy, what does this imply for your private company? Nothing. The VAT number you have now, will most likely not change. Your personal tax number will be updated. For legal entities like a BV company or Ltd company this is not an issue, as their VAT number is a new number not connected to anything privately. Even VOF companies, that are basically two one man companies combined have a VAT number that is not related to a private person.
