A founder with one bank account open and two roles in his head can make tax look simple for too long. The client pays, the invoice is booked, and the cash covers wages, rent and a private transfer. Years later, the first question is not whether the work was real. It is who, for tax purposes, enjoyed the receipt.
A March 2026 Advocate General conclusion, ECLI:NL:PHR:2026:283, case 23/03848, sits behind that question. The proceedings concerned income tax, corporate income tax and VAT returns. The conclusion describes €917,238.70 paid to the CV over 2012 to 2016 and €142,248 paid to the BV in 2016.
The lower court treated the person behind the structure as fiscal economic owner of money received by both entities. The Advocate General found that reasoning hard to follow where the same income was also treated as enjoyed by the CV and BV. For a small business owner, this is not only a court story. It is a cash-planning story.
One euro, one story
Many Dutch small structures run through one person’s hands. The founder sells the work, signs the offer, directs the BV, approves the invoice, watches the bank account and pays the household bills. That is familiar business life. It is also where the tax story can become weak.
Take an interim IT consultant who works through a BV. The client contract names the BV, the invoice carries the BV name, and VAT is declared by the BV. If the founder later uses the money privately, the route matters.
Was it salary, dividend, repayment of an old loan, a new loan, or a current-account withdrawal? Each answer has its own tax timing, record and cash effect. The invoice and bank payment matter, but they are not the whole answer.
The contract, work performed, invoice, VAT return, general ledger, company decision and private extraction should tell the same story. If they do not, a later correction can move across corporate income tax, income tax, wage tax, dividend tax, VAT, tax interest and penalties before the founder has opened the old project folder.
Cash planning starts after attribution
For 2026, Belastingdienst lists corporate income tax at 19.0 percent on taxable profit up to and including €200,000, and 25.8 percent above that. Those rates matter only after the receipt has found its proper owner.
If the BV earned the income, corporate tax is the first layer. If the founder then wants to use the money personally, another route has to explain that movement. That route can become expensive in cash terms.
A DGA salary brings wage tax and the customary-wage question. For 2026, the public reference amount is €58,000, subject to the highest-of test and room for a lower wage if made plausible. Dividend brings the Box 2 layer, with 2026 rates of 24.5 percent up to €68,843 and 31 percent above that amount.
This is why I read the case as a discipline point before I read it as a rate point. A founder may win an attribution argument and still face a cash problem if the real route was never recorded well.
The CV question after 2025
The CV part deserves a current reading. From 1 January 2025, a CV is in principle transparent for Dutch tax purposes unless another basis applies. An open CV that was independently subject to corporate income tax under the old rules became transparent from 2025.
For current planning, that shift mostly concerns older years, closing positions and transition records. Which law applied in the year of the receipt? Which entity booked the income? What happened immediately before 1 January 2025? Was a transition facility used? A slogan about the new CV rules will not repair an old ledger.
A separate Hoge Raad judgment from 24 March 2026, ECLI:NL:HR:2026:424, points in the same direction. The court held that the corporate-income-tax return duty rests with the company whose tax liability is concerned. It does not automatically rest with the person who receives or submits the form for that company.
Small-company governance is not theatre. It decides where duties and corrections land.
What Monday morning looks like
The practical review is modest, but it should be honest. A founder or adviser can look at the largest recent consultancy or management invoice and follow the chain. The contract should name the party that invoiced. The invoice should match the VAT return and the ledger.
The bank receipt should land where the revenue was booked. Any private use should have a recorded route, such as salary, dividend, loan, repayment or current account. Core administration also needs to survive the project. For most business records, the retention period is seven years.
The provisional assessment belongs in the same conversation. Belastingdienst says most companies liable for corporate income tax receive one at the start of the year, based on earlier data. If the expected taxable profit is higher or lower, the company can request a change. A company cannot object to a provisional assessment, but it can change it. That difference matters for cash.
Tax interest also belongs on the calendar. From 2026, Belastingdienst shows Vpb tax interest at 5 percent after the Hoge Raad decision on the earlier higher percentage. Five percent is calmer than 7.5 percent, but it is not nothing when an old receipt takes years to settle.
The interim consultant from the beginning does not need a dramatic new system. He needs one reliable story per receipt. Who earned it? Who booked it? Who declared the VAT? Who paid tax on the profit? How did the money reach the person who spent it?
That is the quiet lesson. Dutch tax does not forbid small structures from being simple. It asks them to be legible. When the books can still explain the route years later, cash planning has a floor under it. When they cannot, even a profitable invoice can turn into a payment question at the worst possible time.
Need a clear route from invoice to company cash and private use? We can help prepare records and questions for your adviser
The data, sourcing, and analysis behind this article were conducted by Linda Pavan. AI was not used to identify sources, build the factual basis, or produce the analytical judgment contained here. AI was used only as a drafting aid. The final English text was personally reviewed, edited, and approved by Linda Pavan before publication.
