How does the VAT period work?
The main rule is in Article 13 of the Dutch VAT Act (Wet OB 1968): the tax becomes due at the moment you issue the invoice. If you do not do that on time, it becomes due at the moment you should have issued it at the latest. That latest date is in Article 34g: the fifteenth day of the month following the month in which you performed the supply.
Those two articles together give the rule you need in practice. If you send on time, the sending date determines the period. If you send too late, the fifteenth of the following month determines the period, and that can therefore be earlier than the day you actually sent it. You can never move an invoice to a later period by sending it later.
The document date on the paper is convenient for your records and not decisive for tax. That is why it is sensible to record the sending date and not only the date you typed into the template.
Where is the VAT period in the law?
These legal sources come from the specialist dossiers that were reviewed on 24 August 2026. Mind the difference that becomes large in a dispute: a statutory article next to a value is where that value is found, not a justification for how it applies to your situation.
- Article 13 of the Dutch VAT Act (Wet OB 1968)the tax is due at the moment the invoice is issued, or at the moment it should have been issued at the latest
- Article 34g of the Dutch VAT Act (Wet OB 1968)the latest issue date is the fifteenth day of the month following the one in which the supply was performed
The links go to the statutory text on wetten.overheid.nl, in the version that applied on 24 September 2026.
What does basestep do with the VAT period?
basestep records the sending date as the tax anchor point and puts the document date next to it. If the sending date puts an invoice in a different period than you expect, that is shown with the reason and the legal reference.
All calculations, explanations and signals in basestep are calculation support and instruction, not tax or legal advice. Amounts are estimates based on your own input; the Dutch tax authority (Belastingdienst) sets the assessment.
Where does it go wrong with the VAT period?
The two mistakes you run into most often in practice with this term, and what they cost you.
The year end
An invoice dated 31 December that you send on 2 January shifts not only to another quarter but also to another financial year. That affects your turnover, your KOR (the Dutch small businesses VAT scheme) and your profit at the same time.
Backdating does not help
Sending later does not move the period to a later one, because the fallback date of Article 34g then applies. You do lose the certainty that your return is correct.
Further reading
Three places this term is tied to, inside this glossary and beyond.