At a recent forum for tax consultants, the Dutch Tax Service emphasized that legal obligations to keep information also apply to digital / electronic communications.
What does this requirement contain?
From a legal point of view
According to Dutch law, you as an entrepreneur (eg EMZ / ZZP) or as a managing director (eg BV) are obliged to conduct / maintain the proper administration of your business.
This legal obligation stems from the Dutch Civil Code (Burgerlijk Wetboek-BW) in part for individuals (Book 3, Article 15i, paragraph 1) and for legal entities (Book 2, Article 10, paragraph 1) and it is included in Article 52, paragraphs 1 and 2 General Law on State Taxes (Algemene wet inzake rijksbelastingen)
All data of the company / enterprise are subject to administration, which are located:
- on paper and / or digitally (contracts, bank statements, invoices, emails, balances, etc.) or
- in electronic form (accounting package, electronic banking, electronic invoices, etc.).
Legislation prescribes mandatory storage of:
- books (such as cash book, bank book, purchase book, and sales book);
- documents (contracts, bank statements);
- other data carriers (accounting software).
Coronacrisis
During the coronavirus crisis, many businessmen were forced to look for new ways to keep working. So, they began to actively use digital resources, for example, instant messengers to maintain contact with customers and suppliers.
Digital instruments
In the rush with which you may have switched to digital resources, you can sometimes forget that you also have to store these digital records and make them available later, as they are also subject to your administration.
The IRS recently noted that in this context, particular attention should be paid to:
- messages in instant messengers, for example, WhatsApp, and text messages;
- publications on social networks;
- electronic calendars and email;
- sales data on the Internet or by telephone, etc.
What is better to do?
Limit communication with customers, suppliers and other contractors only by working e-mail, since this is where you can store all the information in folders that you can subsequently provide to the inspection authorities upon their request. Limit business correspondence via social networks, SMS, WhatsApp, Telegram, etc., as in this case, complying with the requirement for mandatory storage of information may cause problems during a tax audit after some time.
Do not forget that the statute of limitations and storage of documents (fiscale bewaarplicht) in the Netherlands - 7 years.
In other words, it is during such a period that a tax audit can occur, and you will be required to provide all the documents requested for it.
If you have any questions about the administration of your business, please contact us, and we will definitely advise and help you!
Publication Date: 25.02.2021
