Events after the balance sheet date
Events after the balance sheet date are facts between the balance sheet date and the preparation of the annual accounts. They sometimes require adjusting figures and sometimes only disclosure.
What do events after the balance sheet date mean?
Events after the balance sheet date are facts between the balance sheet date and the preparation of the annual accounts. They sometimes require adjusting figures and sometimes only disclosure.
An event after the balance sheet date can provide further information about a condition that already existed at the balance sheet date, or concern a new condition. The first may require recognition; the second mainly disclosure if it is significant.
How does it work?
Until the annual accounts are prepared, the board processes obligations that originate before the end of the financial year and that have become known before preparation (art. 2:384(2) DCC). Between preparation and the general meeting, only what has emerged about the position at the balance sheet date and is indispensable for the insight is still adjusted (art. 2:362(6) DCC).
RJ 160 distinguishes two kinds. If the event provides further information about the actual situation at the balance sheet date, you adjust the figures. If it says nothing about that, the figures stand and, for significant financial consequences, you state the size in the notes (art. 2:380a DCC). If the event removes the going concern assumption, the measurement does change.
Example
Financial year 2025, annual accounts prepared on 20 April 2026. On 12 February 2026 a customer goes bankrupt who owed € 18.000 on 31 December and had already not paid for three months. The bankruptcy confirms a loss that existed at the balance sheet date: you write the receivable down to the expected payout of € 2.000 and book € 16.000 against 2025. On 3 March 2026 a fire destroys an uninsured warehouse with a carrying amount of € 60.000. On 31 December the warehouse was still there: the balance sheet remains unchanged, the notes mention the damage and the loss falls in 2026.
In the annual accounts
Balance sheet/P&L for an adjusting event; otherwise notes where relevant.
Difference from correction of errors
An event after the balance sheet date is new information that arrives before the annual accounts have been adopted. An error is an inaccuracy that is only discovered after adoption; you correct that under RJ 150 in the next annual accounts.
Common mistakes
- Reversing every later event
- Leaving a material new event unmentioned
What to watch for
- Before preparing, go through bank statements, credit notes and mail from lawyers and the Belastingdienst from the new year; note up to which date.
- If you draw up the balance sheet before the appropriation of result, a dividend proposed later is not yet a debt; see dividend after the balance sheet date.
- Small: the notes on unprocessed events need not be in the published documents (art. 2:396(8) DCC). Micro: the disclosure requirement does not apply (art. 2:395a(6) DCC).
Legal basis and source
art. 2:362 DCC; RJ 160
Frequently asked questions
A customer pays in January a receivable that I wanted to write off. What now?
The payment shows that the receivable was collectible at the balance sheet date. You reverse a write-down already booked before you prepare the annual accounts.
Do I have to disclose a drop in turnover in the new year?
Only if the consequences are significant or affect continuity, such as the termination of the contract that provides most of the turnover.
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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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