Amended substance requirements

For a number of years, the Netherlands used a minimum list of “substance requirements” to assess whether or not a company could apply for a certificate of residence in the Netherlands. The full list also needed to be satisfied in order to get access to the Dutch tax ruling team. In the Dutch Tax Bill 2018, the list is now further clarified and expanded.

The use of the list of substance requirements has also been broadened by the Dutch Tax Bill 2018. In this respect, companies need to have “relevant substance” in order to benefit from the dividend withholding tax exemption (see our blog) and in the Netherlands non-resident tax provisions, the substance of the foreign shareholder is assessed.

The substance requirement as clarified in the Dutch Tax Bill 2018 are largely the same to the previous list, but with two additional key changes: the holding company (i) has to incur at least EUR 100,000 in salary expenses in relation to the intermediary holding activities, and (ii) must have and use its own office space (at its disposal for at least 24 months). Please see our blog section for our analysis and takeaways on the substance requirements as of 1 January 2018.