Balance sheet date
The balance sheet date is the last day of the financial year on which assets, equity and liabilities are measured.
What does balance sheet date mean?
The balance sheet date is the last day of the financial year on which assets, equity and liabilities are measured.
The P&L covers the whole period; the balance sheet shows one moment. Events afterwards can provide information about circumstances that already existed on this date.
How does it work?
The balance sheet date is the last day of the financial year. If the financial year follows the calendar year, that is 31 December. The articles of association can designate a different financial year (art. 2:10a DCC), and the balance sheet date then moves with it, for example to 30 June.
The date is also the reference point for what you learn afterwards. An obligation that arose before the end of the financial year and becomes known before the annual accounts are prepared is still included (art. 2:384(2) DCC). An event that creates a new situation only afterwards does not change the figures; if it has significant financial consequences, you state its nature and an estimate of the consequences in the notes (art. 2:380a DCC; RJk A4.112). The statutory deadlines run from the same day: five months for preparation in the case of a BV (private limited company) (art. 2:210(1) DCC) and twelve months for filing (art. 2:394(3) DCC).
Example
A BV has 31 December 2025 as its balance sheet date. On that day an invoice of € 9.000 is outstanding with a customer. On 20 February 2026 the customer goes bankrupt; the trustee expects no payout. The annual accounts are prepared in April. The bankruptcy confirms that the receivable was already uncollectable on 31 December, so the BV writes it down to nil in the 2025 balance sheet. If the warehouse burns down on 3 March 2026, with € 40.000 of uninsured damage, the 2025 balance sheet remains unchanged and the notes report the fire and the amount.
In the annual accounts
Date above the balance sheet and reference point for the notes.
Difference from the date of preparation
The balance sheet date is the moment at which the position is measured. The date of preparation is the day on which the board signs the annual accounts, weeks or months later. In the meantime you still process information about the situation on the balance sheet date. After preparation that applies only to what is indispensable for the true and fair view, until the general meeting considers the annual accounts (art. 2:362(6) DCC).
Common mistakes
- Seeing a later payment as proof that the debt did not exist
- Closing a non-calendar financial year on 31 December
What to look out for
- Count the inventory and cash on or around the balance sheet date and record the count. A count in February is rolled back using the purchases and sales in between.
- For invoices around the turn of the year, check whether delivery took place before or after the balance sheet date; that determines in which year turnover and costs fall.
- For the size class, the position on two consecutive balance sheet dates counts (art. 2:396(1) DCC); one year above the threshold does not yet change the class.
Legal basis and source
art. 2:362 DCC
Frequently asked questions
Can the balance sheet date be a day other than 31 December?
Yes. If the articles of association designate a different financial year, its last day is the balance sheet date, for example 31 March or 30 September. Without a provision in the articles, the financial year is the calendar year (art. 2:10a DCC).
Does a payment in January still count for the December balance sheet?
The payment itself does not: on the balance sheet date the debt or receivable was still open, and that is how it appears on the balance sheet.
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Preparing Dutch annual accounts?
Your first set of annual accounts is free, for every size class. Create an account and prepare the annual accounts of your Dutch company under Title 9 of Book 2 of the Dutch Civil Code.
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