How does the net worth comparison (vermogensvergelijking) work?
The calculation rule is short. Closing equity minus opening equity, plus what you withdrew privately, minus what you deposited privately: that is your profit. You can also turn it around and fill in the profit to see whether the closing equity comes out. Both sides should arrive at the same amount if your bookkeeping balances. That is its whole value: two independent routes to the same number.
Where it goes wrong, it almost always goes wrong in the same three places. A private withdrawal booked as a cost by mistake, because it lowers your profit and increases the difference twice. A business asset that belongs on the balance sheet but is not there. And payables that are too low, because a December purchase invoice was only entered in January. For someone switching from another package, the error is more often in the opening equity than in the year itself.
That is why this check hangs on the year-end close and not on a period. This year’s opening equity is last year’s closing equity. If that is not fixed as a snapshot, a correction in the old year can silently carry through, and next year the comparison no longer works. If you cannot explain the difference, you should not book it away but look it up.
Where is the net worth comparison (vermogensvergelijking) in the law?
For this term there is no statutory basis to refer to, and that is not an omission but the state of affairs. It is a term from bookkeeping practice, not a legal obligation with its own article.
What does apply sits one level higher: under Article 52 of the Dutch General State Taxes Act (Algemene wet inzake rijksbelastingen, AWR), your bookkeeping must be verifiable within a reasonable time. How you set that up is not prescribed by law.
What does basestep do with the net worth comparison (vermogensvergelijking)?
The platform calculates the comparison along both sides and shows the difference, with the trace included so you can see which items count. The switching wizard asks for your opening equity, precisely because the comparison says nothing without it. What does not exist yet is a year-end close that fixes the closing equity as a snapshot; until it exists, the platform nowhere says a year is done.
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 net worth comparison (vermogensvergelijking)?
The two mistakes you run into most often in practice with this term, and what they cost you.
Booking a private withdrawal as a cost
That is the error that doubles the difference: your profit becomes too low and your equity does not add up. Money you withdraw for yourself is never a cost item, even if you spend it on something business-like.
Booking the difference away instead of looking it up
A balancing item that closes the difference makes the comparison worthless, because it switches off exactly the signal it exists for. An unexplained difference is a task, not an entry.
Starting without opening equity
If you switch from another package without entering your opening balance sheet, the comparison cannot calculate. You then only notice an error in the switch years later, when two years no longer connect.
Further reading
Three places this term is tied to, inside this glossary and beyond.