How does a bad debt work?
The refund is not a favour but a correction: you paid VAT on a payment you do not receive, so the taxable amount is reduced. That is the same system as with a credit note, with a different trigger.
The period is the earlier of two dates. The first is the date on which it is established, with substantiation, that payment will not be made, for example through a bankruptcy or a demonstrably stopped collection procedure. The second is the date one year after the claim became due. Whichever comes first determines the period.
Because the marking date in your own bookkeeping is not decisive, it is sensible to record what you base the uncollectibility on. Without that substantiation only the one-year limit is left to you, and that can be later than you would like.
Which events count as substantiation has been fixed in a closed list since 31 August 2026. Seven cases count. A bankruptcy that was ended for lack of assets. A trustee who reports that unsecured creditors receive nothing. A debt restructuring that ends with a clean slate. A court-confirmed composition. A legal entity dissolved without assets. A bailiff who finds no means of recovery. Or a claim that has become time-barred. Each of those seven comes with a supporting document you must be able to show: a decision, a report, an extract or a statement.
Just as important is what does not count as uncollectible, because that is where it goes wrong in practice. A customer who simply does not pay is not uncollectible; that is exactly what the year after the due date is for. An invoice that is disputed is a dispute and not a bad debt. An ongoing payment arrangement proves the opposite. And waiving the debt because you are done with it is a price reduction that runs through a credit note. That last route is not only different for tax, it is also unfavourable under civil law: with a credit note you reduce your own claim and weaken your position if you later want to collect after all.
Where is a bad debt in the law?
These legal sources come from the specialist dossiers that were reviewed on 31 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 29(2) of the Dutch VAT Act (Wet OB 1968)the right to a refund arises in any case no later than one year after the moment the payment became due
- Article 29(4) of the Dutch VAT Act (Wet OB 1968)the refund is requested in the return for the period in which the right to the refund arose
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 a bad debt?
Monitoring the one-year limit per open invoice is planned and not in the platform yet. What is there: the open items with their due date, so you can see yourself which claim is nearing the year. Determining the refund period is something you still do outside the platform for now.
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 a bad debt?
The two mistakes you run into most often in practice with this term, and what they cost you.
Treating a free text field as substantiation
Substantiating means pointing to an event from the fixed list and being able to show the matching document. Your own explanation without a document is not substantiation, and then the statutory fallback date of one year after the due date applies.
Waiting until you are sure
The one-year limit keeps running, even if the collection procedure has not finished. If you wait for certainty, you are sometimes already one period too late.
Using your own write-off date
The day you write off the claim does not determine the period. Record what you base the uncollectibility on, because that is the trigger.
Further reading
Three places this term is tied to, inside this glossary and beyond.