Dealing with Official Dutch Letters sent to your dutch company address
You have incorporated your company in Holland and soon receive an official correspondence
The only problem is that you don’t speak Dutch and have no idea what it says.
You try running it through Google Translate but as often happens the resulting text makes little sense and only leaves you more confused.
At a loss as to what to do, you lay the letter aside and get on with business as usual.
Then you receive another letter with the same heading and begin to think that perhaps you should respond.
How are you supposed to respond though, when you are not even sure who the letter came from?
You could contact an attorney but bilingual corporate lawyers don’t come cheap and your small company is on a tight budget.
So, you hesitate.
Then another letter arrives and even though you don’t know the word “Dwangbevel in naam van de Koning“, just the change in formatting is enough to tell you the letter is urgent.
Now, your anxiety level really starts to climb.
Does this sound familiar?
We have had clients that believed that they wouldn’t have any official transactions for the first year and failed to do any of the mandatory filings. These were costly mistakes.
One client ignored at least two letters from the tax authorities and ended up having to pay large sums in late filing fees and fines.
Another disregarded repeated emails and posts from his bank. He thought everything was in order and since he didn’t read Dutch just took them for regular correspondence.
This resulted in his accounts being frozen; virtually shutting down his business until a meeting could be arranged with the bank’s director to straighten out the whole mess. Both of these gentlemen learned very expensive lessons.
Of course, things didn’t have to reach such critical levels. They could have promptly taken matters into their own hands.
All the above situations could have been easily avoided
Perhaps you have a Dutch BV to run but aren’t based in the Netherlands.
Maybe you have relocated but you don’t speak or read Dutch. Perhaps you just don’t enjoy spending your valuable time dealing with Dutch officials. In any of these cases we can help.
We offer a dealing with incoming correspondence package for our non-resident clients, you could think of us as providing insurance for your peace of mind.
We can help you to deal with all the correspondence and your other interactions with Hollands official bodies.
We’re happy to answer your questions and assist you in dealing with any correspondence
Confused with all the information available online?
FAQ
DEALING WITH DUTCH OFFICIAL LETTERS SENT TO BUSINESS ADDRESS
I have set up a Dutch company in Holland, are the official correspondence in English?
No, they are all written in Dutch.
I want to open a traditional dutch bank account for my Dutch B.V., are the correspondence in Dutch or English?
The majority of them send their emails and official letters in Dutch.
I have received a letter with this phase Dwangbevel in naam van de Koning, what does it mean?
It means that the tax authority has not received any response from you despite reminders. A fine has been incurred as a result of it.