Europe · BV
How to register a company in Netherlands
The Netherlands gives a non-resident a genuinely EU-grade company — the besloten vennootschap, or BV — with no minimum capital to lock up, no Dutch nationality or residency requirement, and a setup you can run entirely from abroad. The one feature that makes it different from the UK or Estonia is that a BV cannot be self-filed online: every BV is born from a notarial deed (notariële akte) executed by a Dutch civil-law notary (notaris), who drafts the articles of association, witnesses the incorporation, and then registers the company and its ultimate beneficial owners with KVK, the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce. That notary is the gatekeeper, the cost driver, and — for a foreigner who never sets foot in the country — your remote proxy. The non-resident path hinges on a power of attorney. Rather than flying to a notary's office in Amsterdam or Rotterdam, you sign a volmacht (power of attorney) at home, have it notarised and apostilled, and the Dutch notary executes the deed on your behalf. From there the notary lodges the registration in the KVK Business Register (a one-off statutory fee of €85.15) and files the UBO details. You receive your KVK number by post at the company's registered Dutch address, and the tax authority — the Belastingdienst — issues the company's RSIN/tax numbers. The mechanics are well-trodden; the friction is the notary's KYC, the apostilled paperwork, and downstream banking.
- Country
- Netherlands
- Topic
- How to register
- Reviewed
- June 2026
By the Lanzamo Editorial Team · Reviewed June 2026 · How we research
- 1
Choose your BV name and check it against the KVK register
A BV name must be distinctive and not conflict with an existing registered business or trademark. Use KVK's free name search (handelsregister) and the Benelux trademark register (BOIP) to clear it before the notary drafts the deed. Unlike some registries there is no 'Ltd'-style mandatory suffix beyond identifying the entity as a BV in the deed; the notary will flag a name that is too similar to an existing one.
- 2
Engage a Dutch civil-law notary (notaris)
Incorporating a BV without a notarial deed is legally impossible — the notaris is mandatory, not optional. Choose a notary or formation agent who works with foreign founders and accepts remote incorporation; many publish fixed-price BV packages (typically €500–1,500 for the deed). The notary runs identity and source-of-funds KYC on every founder, director and UBO before drafting anything.
- 3
Prepare and apostille your identity and power-of-attorney documents
As a non-resident you supply a certified copy of your passport, proof of residential address, and a signed power of attorney (volmacht) authorising the notary to execute the deed for you. These must usually be legalised — notarised and apostilled in your home country under the Hague Apostille Convention — so the Dutch notary can rely on them. Building in time for apostille is the single most common cause of delay.
- 4
Settle the articles of association and share structure
The notary drafts the statuten (articles of association) and the deed of incorporation. Thanks to the 2012 Flex-BV reform you can issue as little as €0.01 of share capital — there is no paid-up minimum and no blocked deposit account to fund before incorporating. A single non-resident can hold 100% of the shares and be the sole director; keep one class of ordinary shares for a first company.
- 5
Identify and document your UBOs
Dutch law requires every ultimate beneficial owner — generally any individual holding more than 25% of shares, voting rights or effective control — to be registered. As a 100% foreign owner you are the sole UBO. The notary collects your UBO evidence and files it in the central UBO register that KVK maintains; this is a legal precondition of registration, not an afterthought.
- 6
Provide a registered Dutch business address
A BV must have a Dutch registered address for the KVK Business Register and Belastingdienst correspondence. Non-residents who have no Dutch office use a registered-office / address service (often bundled by the formation agent, ~€20–80/month). Note that a purely virtual 'letterbox' address with no real activity can raise substance and tax-residence questions later — it is legal for forming the BV but not a free pass on tax.
- 7
Execute the notarial deed (in person or by power of attorney)
On the agreed date the notary passes the deed of incorporation. If you cannot attend, the notary signs on your behalf under your apostilled power of attorney — this is how the great majority of non-resident BVs are formed. At this moment the BV legally exists; the notary is responsible for the deed's accuracy and for the subsequent filings.
- 8
Notary registers the BV with KVK (€85.15) and you receive your number
Immediately after the deed, the notary registers the BV in the KVK Business Register and pays the one-off €85.15 statutory fee on your behalf (re-billed to you). You do not separately visit KVK. KVK then sends a letter with your KVK number to the company's registered Dutch address, and the company is assigned its RSIN identification number used with the tax authorities.
Realistic timeline: Once your apostilled documents are in the notary's hands, the deed and KVK registration are quick — often 3–5 business days, with the KVK number arriving by post shortly after. The realistic end-to-end timeline for a non-resident is 1–3 weeks, because the slow parts are upstream and downstream: getting your power of attorney and passport notarised and apostilled at home, the notary's KYC, and then opening a usable bank account (a few days for an EMI, weeks for a traditional bank). Budget around two to three weeks to be fully incorporated, tax-registered and bankable.
Right after you incorporate
Confirm registration with the Belastingdienst and get your tax numbers
When KVK registers the BV it passes the data to the Belastingdienst, which issues the company's RSIN and, for corporate income tax, a Vpb (vennootschapsbelasting) registration. Most BVs receive these automatically by post within a couple of weeks of incorporation. Confirm you have a corporate income-tax number on file before the first financial year-end so you can file the return on time.
Register for VAT (BTW) and obtain your BTW-id
A BV that makes taxable supplies needs a VAT number. The Belastingdienst issues an omzetbelastingnummer (OB-nummer, used in dealings with the tax office) and a public BTW-identificatienummer (BTW-id, shown on invoices). A Dutch-established BV gets these as part of registration; a company with no real Dutch establishment registers for VAT separately and has effectively no registration threshold, so plan to be VAT-registered from your first taxable Dutch supply.
Open a business bank or EMI account
Traditional Dutch banks (ABN AMRO, ING, Rabobank) apply heavy KYC and frequently want local substance, so non-residents most often start with a fintech/EMI — Wise, Bunq or Revolut Business — that onboards remotely against the KVK number. Open this early: you will need an account to receive revenue, pay the notary's invoice and pay your accountant.
Set up Dutch bookkeeping and the annual accounts filing
Every BV must keep proper books and file annual financial statements (jaarrekening) with KVK — small BVs file an abbreviated balance sheet only, but the filing itself is mandatory. Engage a Dutch accountant or bookkeeper (~€1,000–3,000/yr) to handle the jaarrekening, the periodic VAT returns and the annual corporate income-tax return; the rules and language make DIY impractical for most foreign founders.
Set up payroll only if you pay a salary
You register as an employer (loonheffingen) only if the BV pays wages, including a director's salary. Be aware of the gebruikelijkloonregeling — the 'customary salary' rule that obliges a director-major-shareholder (DGA) to draw a market-level salary — but for a non-resident DGA with no work performed in the Netherlands, application is nuanced; confirm with your accountant before assuming it binds you.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to travel to the Netherlands to incorporate a BV?
No. A BV can be incorporated entirely remotely by granting a power of attorney (volmacht) to the Dutch civil-law notary, who then executes the deed and registers the company with KVK on your behalf. You will, however, need to have your passport and the power of attorney notarised and apostilled in your home country first, and most banks still run their own remote KYC afterwards.
Can a non-resident own 100% of a Dutch BV and be the sole director?
Yes. The Netherlands imposes no nationality or residency requirement on shareholders or directors, so a single foreign individual can own all the shares and be the only director of a BV. You must still register your details and UBO information with KVK and maintain a Dutch registered address. There is no resident-director requirement, though running real management abroad has tax-residence implications.
Why does a BV need a notary when a UK Ltd does not?
Dutch company law makes incorporation a notarial act: only a civil-law notary (notaris) can pass the deed of incorporation that brings a BV into existence and draft its articles of association. This adds cost (typically €500–1,500) and a KYC step you do not face in the UK, but it also means the notary handles the KVK registration and UBO filing for you in one flow.
What is the minimum share capital for a BV?
Effectively €0.01. Since the 2012 'Flex-BV' reform there is no minimum paid-up capital and no requirement to deposit funds in a blocked account before incorporating. The standard structure is a nominal amount of issued ordinary shares held by the foreign founder — a real advantage over a German GmbH, which requires €25,000 with half paid up.
Sources
- KVK — Registering a Dutch BV or NV (notary, deed, UBO, KVK registration)
- KVK — Business Register registration fee (€85.15)
- Business.gov.nl — Private limited company (bv) in the Netherlands
- Belastingdienst — Dutch Tax Administration (corporate income tax, VAT, dividend tax)
- Business.gov.nl — Corporate income tax in the Netherlands (19% / 25.8%)
- PwC Tax Summaries — Netherlands corporate income tax (19% / 25.8%)
- PwC Tax Summaries — Netherlands withholding taxes (15% dividend WHT)
- PwC Tax Summaries — Netherlands tax credits and incentives (innovation box, WBSO)
- Business.gov.nl — VAT for non-resident businesses (no registration threshold)
- Business.gov.nl — Filing your corporate income tax return (Vpb)
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