Frequently asked questions on corporate income tax

Dutch corporate income tax has two brackets (article 22 of the Corporate Income Tax Act 1969). On profit up to € 200,000 you pay 19%. On profit above that you pay 25.8%. These are the rates for 2026. The limit and the percentages have changed often in recent years, so do not use figures from an old overview.

As a director you work for your own BV. The law does not want you to pay yourself too little to save tax (article 12a of the Wage Tax Act 1964). Your salary must therefore be at least as high as the highest of three benchmarks: the salary for comparable work, the salary of the best-paid employee in your BV, or a fixed amount set every year. Lower is only allowed if you can show that a lower salary makes business sense. With a BV, this is usually the first thing the tax authorities look at.

The BV can deduct salary, but you pay tax on it in box 1 at a rising rate, with wage tax and contributions. The BV cannot deduct dividend, because corporate income tax has already been paid on it. You then pay tax on it in box 2. Which is cheaper depends on your profit, on the customary salary you have to take anyway and on how much you want to leave in the BV. It has to be calculated per situation.

You can set a loss off against the profit of the previous year. What is left, you can set off against later profits without a time limit. Above a certain amount there is a limit: of the profit above that amount, only part can be set off against old losses each year. For most small BVs this does not matter. Do make sure the loss is officially set in a decision from the tax authorities, otherwise you cannot use it later.

The corporate income tax return must in principle be in within five months after the financial year ends. If your financial year is the calendar year, that is before 1 June. An adviser can ask for an extension for you. You also have to file the annual accounts with the Chamber of Commerce. That has a different deadline, with a different penalty, and it can affect your liability as a director.

In a fiscal unity several BVs count as one for corporate income tax. The advantage: profits and losses of the BVs are set off against each other, and transactions between the BVs do not count for tax. The disadvantage: the low 19% rate applies only once for the whole group, instead of per BV. And all BVs are liable together for the tax debt. Whether it pays off depends on the results of the BVs.