Income tax payment deferral

Can't pay your income tax on time? A payment arrangement is often a realistic option. The standard arrangement runs for a maximum of twelve months, counted from the date you are granted it. For that, the Tax Authority does not require a declaration from a third-party expert, but it does require a completed request form with a substantial set of attachments: the annual accounts for the last two financial years, an interim balance sheet and profit-and-loss account for the current year, an overview of your current assignments and clients, a liquidity forecast for the coming twelve months and a general forecast for the coming two years. Putting that package together is the work Dutch Tax House helps with.

That substantiation is often trickier than it looks. The form asks specific bookkeeping questions, and an incomplete or incorrectly filled-in request can cause delay or rejection. That's why help from an accountant is often needed even for this shorter arrangement — not just to supply the figures, but to present them the right way.

Can't manage it within twelve months? A longer arrangement may be possible, but only in special circumstances. The Tax Authority sets its own conditions for those, and they differ per situation — in certain cases they include a declaration from a third-party expert, such as a bookkeeper or tax advisor, confirming that the business is viable and can reasonably be expected to pay off the debt. What applies in your case is checked beforehand against the Tax Authority's current conditions, so you are not caught out. If a declaration is part of it, that requires an intake interview which, especially for sole proprietorships, also covers the personal financial situation, since the Tax Authority looks at overall ability to pay. So the conversation does involve fairly personal questions; hold it somewhere quiet where you can answer in private.

Either way, the bookkeeping needs to be up to date to answer these questions properly. If it has fallen behind, that gets brought up to date first, so the request is based on current, accurate figures.

The standard arrangement of up to twelve months comes at a fixed price of €350 excl. VAT (€423.50 incl. 21% VAT), provided the bookkeeping is up to date. That covers the completed request form, the required attachments and the repayment proposal. Need a longer arrangement with a third-party expert declaration, or does the bookkeeping need to be brought up to date first? Then you receive a separate fixed-price proposal after the introductory call.