Government measures in key jurisdictions 5th edition - Flipbook - Page 146
The Netherlands
Company
law matters
•
Since forming the fiscal coronavirus reserve will lower the 2019 taxable income, the remaining
taxable income in 2019 may be insufficient to (fully) offset historical tax losses a result of
which these may (partially) forfeit (depending on the year in which those historical losses were
realized). The application may be submitted here.
•
Directors who are also major shareholders in their own company are deemed to receive a
'customary salary' for Dutch wage tax purposes. The customary salary rules
(gebruikelijkloonregeling) aim to avoid artificial structures under which no salary or only a
small salary is attributed to directors/major shareholders. The 'customary salary' depends on
the director/major shareholder's specific situation, but is in principle at least EUR 47,000
(2021) or equal to the most comparable employee of another company or the highest earning
employee of the director/major shareholder's own company. On 24 April 2020, the Dutch
government announced that these rules will be changed so that directors/major shareholders
may temporarily reduce the 'customary salary' they are deemed to receive in proportion to the
turnover losses incurred due to the coronavirus for 2020 and 2021. The “customary salary” for
2021 may only be reduced if the company has lost at least 30% in turnover in 2021 as
compared to 2019. Approximately 135,000 directors/major shareholders are expected to
benefit from the measure. More information can be found here.
•
Until 1 April 2021 the existing fixed travel allowance as granted by the employer before 13
March 2020 can still be reimbursed tax-free by the employer, even if these travel expenses are
no longer (entirely) incurred as a result of working from home.
•
Under the work-related cost scheme, employers may use a certain percentage of their total
wage sum (i.e. the discretionary margin) for tax-free allowances and benefits to employees. As
from 1 January 2020, the discretionary margin was increased to 1.7% (instead of 1.2%) for the
first EUR 400,000 of the total wage sum. On 24 April 2020, the Dutch government announced
to further increase the discretionary margin from 1.7% to 3% for the first EUR 400,000 of the
total wage sum for the years 2020 and 2021. For the amount of the total wage sum above the
first EUR 400,000 the discretionary margin is 1.2% in 2020 and 1.18% in 2021. More information
can be found here.
•
On 26 June 2020, the State Secretary of Finance announced a six-month postponement of the
reporting deadlines under EU Directive 2018/822 on mandatory automatic exchange of
information in the field of taxation in relation to reportable cross-border arrangements ("DAC
6"). The DAC 6 reporting deadline was originally intended to take effect from 1 July 2020. As a
result of this postponement, the 30 day period for new reportable cross-border arrangements
was deferred from 1 July 2020 to 1 January 2021 (i.e. reportable cross-border arrangements
between 1 July 2020 and 1 January 2021 needed to be reported ultimately 31 January 2021). The
deadline for reportable cross border arrangements of which the first implementation step
occurred between 25 June 2018 and 1 July 2020 was deferred from 31 August 2020 to 28
February 2021.
•
Have any measures
been put in place
to accommodate
social distancing
(such as remote
general meetings)?
–the facilitation of electronic decision-making by temporary derogation from the legal and
statutory provisions concerning holding physical meetings of legal entities,
–extension of the period for preparing annual accounts by the management board instead
of by the general meeting,and
–a temporary limitation on the ‘presumptions of proof’ for directors’ liability in case of
bankruptcy if filing the annual accounts is delayed as a result of Covid-19.
•
146
The Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security published a bill on 8 April 2020 on temporary
provisions in the area of the Ministry of Justice and Security in connection with the coronavirus
( Covid-19) outbreak (the “Emergency Act”) and an accompanying Explanatory Memorandum.
The Emergency Act provides for, among other things:
The Emergency Act entered into force on 24 April 2020. All the rules apply retroactively from
16 March 2020, except the regulation on presumptions of proof when annual accounts are
filed late. The Emergency Act will apply until 1 April 2021. More information can be found here.
Government measures in key jurisdictions
