Registering a vof with natural persons and legal entities

The vof has partners who are natural persons and partners that are legal entities, such as a bv, association, or another vof.

Before you register

About the vof (vennootschap onder firma)

Do you want to start a company with a business partner under a shared company name? The legal structure vennootschap onder firma (vof, general partnership) may be the right choice for you. Read more about the vof. 

The difference between natural persons and legal entities

A natural person is a human being of flesh and blood. A legal entity, or a non-natural person, is an organisation. For example, a bv, cv, maatschap, vof, cooperative, vereniging (association), or stichting (foundation). This article is about registering a vof with natural persons and legal entities as its partners. You can also: 

Registering a vof step by step

1.    Fill in the registration form

The 'Start registration' button takes you to the digital registration form. Fill this in to the best of your ability. The more complete the form, the less time you will need to spend on your registration appointment at KVK. 

Do not use punctuation or diacritics in your name

In the field "uw naam" (your name), do not use punctuation marks or diacritics, such as an umlaut or accent. The system cannot handle these, and this will cause an error that makes it impossible for us to send you an email. This means you cannot continue with your registration. You can adjust your name to the correct spelling later on.  

Consult the pdf for the English terminology

The online registration process is only available in Dutch. To find out what is being asked of you, you can consult form 2 for registering a vof (pdf). You can also opt to fill out the form, print it, and bring it to your appointment.

Start registration

2.    Register UBOs

UBOs (ultimate beneficial owners) are the persons who have the ultimate stake in an organisation, for example because they have certain voting rights. You must register your UBOs when you start a new vof. First determine who are the UBOs for your organisation. Then fill in form 32 and bring it to your appointment.  

Download form 32

3.    Make an appointment

Have you completed the forms? You can make an appojntment at a KVK office of your choice. Login using DigiD at the bottom of this page to make the appointment. 

About the appointment

The natural partners come to the office and bring:  

  • valid proof of their identity.   
  • form 10: 'Registration of a partner (vennoot)'. Fill in the details of the partner that is a legal entity.
  • a copy of a valid ID of the person who has signed for the partner that is a legal entity. 

A KVK employee will check the forms and IDs. 

Is your starting date over 2 months ago? 

You must prove that you have executed business activities since the starting date you have submitted. Such as documents that prove you have made investments or executed assignments. Bring these to your appointment. 

Registration fee

Login using DigiD

FAQ about registering a vof

At Help & Contact you will find all frequently asked questions about DigiD.

Only one of the partners in the vof can register. You can help someone else with the registration, but a partner must log in with their own DigiD.

You must register your company within 1 week before or after the start of your business activities.

You can also visit our offices earlier to register your company. You can do this up to 3 months before your start date. To do this, make an appointment with one of our offices.

We will handle the actual registration in the week before the start date you provide. You do not need to visit a KVK office again for this. After registration, we will send you a written confirmation of your registration and an invoice for the registration fee by post.

You will receive a KVK number when you register in the Business Register. You can register from 1 week before the start date of your company, but you can also visit the KVK earlier to prepare your registration. You can do this up to 3 months before the start date. In this case, the actual registration (with KVK number) will take effect 1 week before the start date of your company. You do not need to return to the KVK offices for this.

Registration in the preparation phase is possible in some cases. Preparations include ordering goods, applying for permits, or renting business premises. To complete the registration, make an appointment online by logging in with DigiD. Registration is possible at any KVK office in the Netherlands.

All the FAQs about UBOs can be found under Help & Contact. 

You do not need to register separately with the Netherlands Tax Administration. You submit information when preparing your registration, which the KVK forwards in digital form to the Tax Administration. You will receive a letter of confirmation for your registration with the Tax Administration. After around 10 working days, you will receive a notification from the Tax Administration.

We advise you to document the agreements you make with your partners in a partnership contract (a vof contract). In this contract, you also document the authority of each partner. Bring the vof contract to your KVK appointment, or send it to KVK by post (if you do not have to make an appointment in person). 

Is your question not included? More frequently asked questions can be found on our Help and contact page. It also states how you can contact us.