Freelancing abroad: where do you register your business?

Are you going to work from abroad? If so, check whether you need to change your registration and do so in good time. This will help you avoid problems with, for example, the Netherlands Tax Administration or with legislation in the country where you will be working. You are responsible for ensuring that your business is correctly registered in the KVK Business Register.

Deregistering from KVK

Every week, dozens of entrepreneurs move abroad. Are you moving abroad temporarily or emigrating completely? If you are emigrating, your business usually moves with you and you must deregister it from the KVK Business Register. 

Whether you stay registered with KVK depends on if you still have business activities in the Netherlands. Is this not the case? Then you have to inform KVK that the business in the Netherlands is stopping. Even if you do have customers in the Netherlands. You can have Dutch clients with your foreign company, without being registered with KVK.

Avoid additional costs

Deregister from the Business Register so that the Tax Administration and other organisations will no longer see you as an entrepreneur. That way, you avoid paying unnecessary costs. For example, on tax returns, memberships, and insurances in the Netherlands.

If you do not deregister yourself, KVK deregisters your company for you. We do this if checks by for example, your municipality or landlord, show that you no longer have a company in the Netherlands.

Do you also carryout assignments in the Netherlands?

Will you remain an entrepreneur in the Netherlands after emigrating? For example, because you sometimes return and carry out a job here. Then your company will remain in the KVK Business Register. For this, you need a Dutch business address. 

Ask for help

Discuss your plans to move with your accountant, and ask the KVK Advice Team or the Tax Administration for advice. Change your registration in the Business Register in time, so you can go abroad without worries.

Examples

These examples are from 5 self-employed professionals who told KVK about their experiences with moving abroad.

1. Dentist

A dentist emigrates to France, and continues to practice his profession in the Netherlands. He works as a substitute and takes weekend shifts in a dental practice. Because he practices his business activities in the Netherlands, his business has to remain registered in the KVK Business Register.

But because he lives in France, he needs a Dutch business address, for example the address of the dental practice where he works. The owner of the practice premises has to agree to this

The entrepreneur must also register his foreign private address in the RNI (Non-resident Persons Database) at 1 of the 19 Dutch RNI registration points.

2. Journalist

A self-employed journalist moves to the USA. If she is only writing copy for Dutch media from the USA then she is not actually working in the Netherlands. This means she must deregister at KVK. She no longer has to pay Dutch taxes, as her business activities now take place in the USA. The journalist can register with an American business register, and send her Dutch clients invoices from the States.

3. Online shop

The owner of a Dutch online shop moves to Spain. She no longer has business activities in the Netherlands, and must deregister from the KVK Business Register. Even if her online shop sells only to Dutch customers, her business is Spanish.

Her online shop may still be registered for VAT, if the turnover from Dutch customers exceeds the EU threshold for long-distance sales. She can then choose either to file her VAT for other EU countries in her Spanish VAT return, or to apply for a VAT number to the Dutch Tax Administration, and file a VAT return in the Netherlands for her Dutch sales.

4. Part-time handyman

A construction contractor moves to Austria after his retirement. He would like to do odd jobs in the Netherlands for a couple of months a year.

To register as a self-employed professional with KVK, he needs a visiting address in the Netherlands. Preferably for his ownworkshop or storage facility. If this is not possible, he may be able to use the address where he stays when he is in the Netherlands. For example, the address of a family member. To do this, he needs a declaration of consent from the owner or permanent resident at the address.

The contractor must register his foreign private address at one of the 19 Dutch RNI registration points.

5. Consultant

A freelance consultant moves from the Netherlands to Sweden. She continues to advise her Dutch clients from Sweden, visiting them in person every now and again.

In this case, the business activities take place abroad and she must deregister from the KVK Business Register. She can register a new business in Sweden and continue to provide services to her Dutch customers from there.

She will have to figure out how to meet her tax obligations for these so-called intra-community services - that is, services provided from a business in one EU country to a customer in another. 

Old Age Pension (AOW)

If you move your business abroad, you no longer make automatic pension contributions under the General Old Age Pensions Act (AOW). This means that for every year that you work outside the Netherlands, you will receive less national pension when you retire. You can take out voluntary insurance with the Sociale Verzekeringsbank (SVB) if you do not accrue AOW.