How does the opgaaf ICP work?
The statement belongs with the reverse charge. If you supply to a business with a valid VAT identification number in another EU country, the taxation moves to that country: you charge no VAT, your customer reports it there and deducts it again in the same return. That only works if both tax authorities can see that it is the same transaction, and that is what the statement is for. Your statement is therefore literally the counterpart of the return of your customer.
From that function follows the requirement that is most often underestimated: the match. The total of your statement for a period should equal what you reported in boxes 3b and 3c of your VAT return for that same period. If they differ, there is a supply that is in one overview and not in the other, and that is exactly the difference an audit picks up on.
The correction follows the original period. If you send a credit note on a supply from two quarters back, you correct the statement for that quarter and not the current one. That is the same rule as for the VAT return itself, and for the same reason: the overview must keep matching what was supplied at the time.
Where is the opgaaf ICP 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 37a of the Dutch VAT Act (Wet OB 1968)governs the statement of intra-Community supplies and which details it contains
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 opgaaf ICP?
basestep does not deliver the statement itself as a document, and you always file it yourself in Mijn Belastingdienst Zakelijk (the Dutch tax authority business portal). What is coming is the table underneath: per customer the VAT identification number, the country and the amounts split into goods and services, with the total that must match boxes 3b and 3c of your return.
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 opgaaf ICP?
The two mistakes you run into most often in practice with this term, and what they cost you.
Forgetting the statement because there is no VAT on the invoice
With a reverse-charged supply there is precisely no VAT on the invoice, and then it feels as if there is nothing to report. The statement is still mandatory then, and it is the only trace that the supply exists.
Correcting in the current period
A credit note on an older supply belongs in the statement for the period that supply was in. If you correct in the current period, two periods fall out of step at the same time.
The zero rate without proof
The zero rate on a supply to another EU country requires that you can show the goods left the Netherlands. If that proof is missing, the supply is taxed with Dutch VAT after all, and that VAT is at your expense.
Further reading
Three places this term is tied to, inside this glossary and beyond.