Dutch tax measures to provide relief for economic impact corona crisis

Article
NL Law
Expertise
Tax
On 12 March, the Government sent a letter to the lower house of the Dutch parliament setting out a number of measures to mitigate the economic impact of the corona crisis, including a number of tax measures. Below we will provide you with a concise overview of these tax measures.

Deferral of tax payments

Taxpayers can file a request for an extraordinary deferral of the payment of personal income tax, corporate income tax, VAT and wage withholding tax. The deferral will in principle be granted (and the collection of said taxes will be suspended) if the taxpayer demonstrates in writing that the corona virus has led to financial problems. An individual assessment of the request will take place at a later point in time. The usual conditions for the deferral of tax payments remain applicable. Administrative penalties for late payment of taxes are not going to be issued or are going to be reversed. The letter acknowledges that all requests will have to be handled manually so that the time to process the requests may increase as the number of requests rises.

Reduction of advance tax payments on provisional tax assessments

Entrepreneurs make advance tax payments on basis of provisional tax assessments, that are based on an estimated annual profit. Taxpayers that expect a lower profit as a consequence of the corona crises can file a request to reduce the advance tax payments. The tax authorities will approve in principle to such request.

Non-tax measures announced

Apart from measures in the field of taxation, also various non-tax measures are announced. Most notably, companies facing a temporary loss of work for (part of) its employees due to the current exceptional circumstances (exceeding ordinary entrepreneurial risks), can apply for a working time reduction (subject to certain conditions). For those employers the company can apply for unemployment benefits. Furthermore the existing credit guarantee regime for small and medium enterprises (‘SME’) will be further expanded as per the end of March to provide relief to SME’s that are confronted with liquidity issues due to the corona crises.

More about the coronavirus

You can read more publications on the impact of the coronavirus on our website. Here you will also find a list of contacts within our organisation who can advise you with questions about the implications of the coronavirus for your company.

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