The words your bookkeeping gets stuck on.
VAT (btw), invoices, deductions and bookkeeping, explained in plain language. For each term you see where it is in the law, how it comes back in basestep, and which two mistakes are made with it most often. The tax explanation on this page follows Dutch law and is written for Dutch sole proprietorships (eenmanszaak).
Not tax advice; you file yourself. Read the disclaimer
38 terms
VAT
What you pay, what you reclaim, and which period it belongs to.
Bad debt
An invoice that is not paid, and the VAT you already paid on it and can reclaim.
Credit note
The counter-document with which you reverse an invoice you already sent, in whole or in part.
EU-KOR
The exemption for small businesses in other EU countries, with its own threshold and its own quarterly report.
Input VAT
The VAT you paid yourself on business purchases, which you deduct from the VAT you owe.
Kleineondernemersregeling (KOR)
An exemption from VAT below a turnover threshold per calendar year, with a threshold you have to monitor yourself.
Opgaaf ICP
The separate statement alongside your VAT return, as soon as you supply to a business in another EU country.
Reverse-charge VAT
VAT that you, not the supplier, must report, usually on a service from abroad.
Rubriek 1a
The box on the VAT return for your turnover at the standard rate, and the place where corrections belong.
Suppletie
The mandatory report when you find out yourself that an earlier VAT return was incorrect.
VAT period
The period your VAT return covers, and the question of exactly which invoice falls into it.
Invoices and payment
From quotation to formal demand: what an invoice must contain and what you may do when a customer does not pay.
E-invoice
An invoice as structured data instead of a document that a person has to read.
Formal demand
The letter in which you demand a late payment, and why it does something different with a business than with a private customer.
Invoice requirements
The details that must appear on an invoice, and why your customer needs them.
Notice of default
The letter that puts your customer in default, and the cases in which you do not need it.
Payment term
The time your customer has to pay, and the moment at which they are late.
Quotation
An offer that becomes a contract as soon as your customer accepts it, even with a click.
Right of withdrawal
The fourteen-day cooling-off period a consumer has when buying something at a distance.
Statutory commercial interest
The interest that starts to run automatically when a business customer pays late.
Statutory interest
The interest on late payment by a private customer; lower than commercial interest and often confused with it.
Veertiendagenbrief
The reminder you must send a consumer before you may charge collection costs.
Income tax
The deductions and thresholds a sole proprietorship (eenmanszaak) runs into every year.
Depreciation
The costs of something that lasts several years, spread over those years instead of all at once.
Investeringsaftrek
An extra deduction if you invest enough in business assets in a year, with a catch when you sell.
Loss relief
Offsetting a loss from your business against profit from other years, three years back and nine years forward.
Mileage allowance
The fixed amount per business kilometre that you may deduct from your profit.
Startersaftrek
The increase of the zelfstandigenaftrek in your first years, and the one point where it behaves differently.
Urencriterium
The limit of 1,225 hours a year on which a series of deductions for entrepreneurs depends.
Zelfstandigenaftrek
A fixed amount you deduct from your profit if you meet the urencriterium (the 1,225-hour test), and which is being phased out.
Bookkeeping
The parts of your bookkeeping you meet as soon as you have to export or prove something.
Accounts payable ledger
The overview of what you yourself still have to pay to others, per item and per date.
Bewaarplicht
The obligation to keep your records for seven years, and the question of what “keeping” means.
General ledger
The set of accounts that can hold all your entries, and the skeleton of your bookkeeping.
Informatieplicht
The obligation to answer questions from the Dutch tax authority, and it has no expiry period.
Journal entry
One entry in your bookkeeping, with a debit side and a credit side that are equal to each other.
Matching
Linking a bank line to the invoice or expense it belongs to, so you can see who still has to pay.
RGS
A standard coding that makes your general ledger accounts translatable for others.
VAT or income tax
Two taxes that have nothing to do with each other, and the confusion that costs the most money.
Vermogensvergelijking
The check that shows whether your profit is really right, and the strongest check a sole proprietorship (eenmanszaak) has.
XAF-auditfile
The standard file you use to hand over your entire financial bookkeeping in one go.
Year-end close
Locking an entire financial year, and why a locked VAT period is not that yet.
No term found. Missing one? Email it to info@basestep.io.
Every term deserves its own content, or it does not exist.
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