Your first set of Dutch annual accounts is free, complete and for any size class

The short answer

Yes. The first set of annual accounts (jaarrekening) you prepare in Jaarrekening.io is free: complete, for any size class and without payment details. Filing with the KVK (Dutch Chamber of Commerce) costs nothing either. You only pay for a further financial year or a second entity, once per financial year and by size class, from € 250 excl. VAT.

Updated 30 October 2026

Key facts

What is free, and on what conditions?

The free annual accounts are not a trial version and not a stripped-down variant. You get what a paying customer gets, for the size class that follows from your figures:

• balance sheet and profit and loss account from your trial balance or XAF audit file, with the prior-year comparative figures;
• the notes your class requires: for micro no notes but a few disclosures below the balance sheet art. 2:395a(3), (4) and (7) DCC, for small a set of notes with the exemptions of art. 2:396 DCC, for medium-sized and large the extended notes;
• the management report for medium-sized and large art. 2:391 DCC; micro and small entities do not prepare one;
• a publication version limited to what your class must make public;
• an XBRL file as a validation candidate for financial years starting in 2023 through 2026, and export to PDF, Word and Excel.

After activation, the financial year is open like a paid one. No trial period runs out and there is nothing to cancel.

The conditions

• One per account. An account is one workspace. If you put three entities in it, you still get one free set of annual accounts.
• The first financial year you activate is the free one. For a further financial year or a second entity you pay by size class.
• Never paid before. If a set of annual accounts has ever been paid for in the account, even one that was later refunded, the free set has been used.
• Class first. You enter the size criteria before you activate; content and price follow from that class. Activating is done by an administrator or preparer of the account.
• One time only. If you later delete the entity or the financial year, the free set does not come back.
• Entities under Title 9. The BV (private limited company), the NV and the cooperative, the foundation or association that falls under art. 2:360(3) DCC, and the vof or cv whose fully liable partners are all foreign limited companies art. 2:360(2) DCC. The app does not prepare the annual accounts of a bank, insurer or investment institution.

What else is free around annual accounts?

Besides the first set of annual accounts there are tools that cost nothing. The most important: filing costs not a cent at the KVK. Its page on SBR literally says: “Filing annual accounts is free.”

The KVK portal and the free annual accounts do not get in each other's way. In Jaarrekening.io you prepare the annual accounts that the competent body adopts, for a BV the general meeting art. 2:210(3) DCC. For micro or small entities you then copy the public figures into the portal, or have the XBRL file submitted through SBR once it has been validated.

Trial period, free account or first annual accounts free?

Providers use the word free for very different offers. So look at what you hold at the end.

A trial period is handy to get to know a program. The free first set of annual accounts is meant to complete a real financial year all the way through to the publication version.

Free annual accounts for a BV

For a micro or small BV, the first year can cost you nothing. For those classes the law does not require an audit: for micro, the sections on management report, other information and audit do not apply art. 2:395a(6) DCC, for small, among other things, the management report and the audit engagement lapse art. 2:396(7) DCC. You prepare with the free annual accounts and file yourself with a KVK account and authorisation.

Mind the sequence. The board prepares the annual accounts within five months after the financial year; the general meeting can extend that by at most five months in special circumstances art. 2:210(1) DCC. After adoption you file within eight days, and no later than twelve months after the end of the financial year art. 2:394(1) and (3) DCC. If the annual accounts have not been adopted two months after the end of the preparation period, the board files the prepared version without delay, stating that it has not yet been adopted art. 2:394(2) DCC. If all shareholders are also directors, signing by all directors and supervisory directors also counts as adoption, provided the other persons entitled to attend meetings could inspect the annual accounts and agreed to this procedure art. 2:210(5) DCC.

If the BV is medium-sized or large, the first set of annual accounts in the app stays free, but an accountant normally comes in. The accountant examines the annual accounts art. 2:393(1) DCC, and without the accountant's report the general meeting cannot in principle adopt them (paragraph 7). Read more about the BV at prepare annual accounts for a BV and in the guide for the BV.

Free annual accounts for a holding company with an operating company

A holding company and its operating company are two entities, each with its own annual accounts and its own adoption. Usually both file as well; if the operating company applies the group exemption of art. 2:403 DCC, its own filing can lapse under conditions. If they are in the same account, one of the two sets of annual accounts is free and you pay for the other by its size class.

Which one is free follows from the order: the set you activate first. If the classes differ, it pays to activate the most expensive one first. If the holding company is small because of the group figures and the operating company is micro, you pay € 250 excl. VAT in the first year if you activate the holding company first, and € 500 excl. VAT the other way round.

For the holding company's class, the assets, net turnover and employees of the group companies that would be included in a consolidation count art. 2:395a(2) DCC art. 2:396(2) DCC, unless the holding company applies art. 2:408 DCC. A holding company at the head of a group is therefore often small rather than micro. A personal holding company with one operating company is not always a group head; if it is not, it is tested on its own figures (RJk M1.109).

The free annual accounts are the single-entity annual accounts of one entity; consolidated accounts are not part of it. A small group may omit consolidation, among other things if the group figures together stay within the limits for small and the general meeting does not object in writing within six months after the start of the financial year art. 2:407(2) DCC. See prepare annual accounts for a holding company and the guide for the holding company.

Free annual accounts for a foundation

Most foundations (stichting) do not file annual accounts with the KVK. Title 9 of Book 2 DCC applies to a foundation only if it maintains one or more enterprises that must be entered in the Business Register, and the net turnover of those is, for two consecutive financial years, at least half of the turnover limit for small, now € 7.5 million art. 2:360(3) DCC. The rule lapses if the foundation already has to prepare, by law, a financial statement equivalent to the annual accounts and that statement is also made public (paragraph 3, second sentence). The same applies to the association.

If the foundation falls under that rule, it files like a BV and the free first set of annual accounts applies in the same way. If it does not, the annual accounts route of Jaarrekening.io is not meant for it: the board then prepares a balance sheet and a statement of income and expenditure every year art. 2:10(2) DCC, and an ANBI (public benefit organisation) also publishes for the Belastingdienst (Dutch Tax Administration). You can keep the bookkeeping of such a foundation in Jaarrekening.io, as a subscription; the app does not (yet) produce a statement of income and expenditure under RJk C1. See annual accounts for a foundation and the guide for foundation and ANBI.

What does it cost after the free annual accounts?

From the second set of annual accounts in the account, you pay once per financial year, by size class. There is no subscription for the annual accounts.

Payment takes place in the financial year overview, before the trial balance is imported. The provider is a small business (Kleinunternehmer) in Germany (§ 19 UStG); no VAT is added. If you also keep the bookkeeping in the app, that is a separate monthly subscription per entity, from € 125 excl. VAT for micro. What annual accounts cost in total, with accountant and audit, is on what do annual accounts cost?; the amounts are also on the pricing page.

What is not covered by free?

• An accountant. Only an accountant can give a compilation report or an auditor's report. For micro and small entities the law requires neither; a bank or grant provider may ask for one.
• The statutory audit for medium-sized and large entities art. 2:393(1) DCC. You agree the fee with the accountant.
• eHerkenning, if you want to sign in with it. With a KVK account and authorisation it is not needed.
• SBR software or an intermediary, if you have the XBRL file submitted through SBR. For a large entity, your accountant submits it with SBR software, together with the auditor's report in the same format.
• Consolidated accounts of a group, and XBRL for the documents under art. 2:403 DCC.
• Advice and tax returns. The app gives no tax or legal advice. The Taxes module, with the corporate income tax return, is coming soon.
• The submission itself. Jaarrekening.io itself sends nothing to the KVK; you file, or your accountant does.

Filing late: fine and liability

Free annual accounts only help if you file them on time. The KVK is clear about it: “Not filing on time is a criminal offence.” You can receive a fine or the Public Prosecution Service can prosecute you; it is an economic offence art. 1 under 4° Economic Offences Act (Wet op de economische delicten). By law there is no extension of the filing deadline (KVK).

What happens if a BV goes bankrupt weighs more heavily. If the board has not complied with the filing obligation, it is established that it has performed its duties improperly, and it is presumed that this is an important cause of the bankruptcy; only a minor omission does not count art. 2:248(2) DCC. Directors can rebut that presumption. Directors can then be jointly and severally liable for the shortfall in the bankruptcy (paragraph 1).

Calculate your deadline with the filing deadline calculator and read what to do if it is already too late in filing annual accounts late.

Your free annual accounts in five steps

1. Create an account. Register with the button on this page. You enter no payment details.
2. Add entity and financial year. Enter the KVK number and legal form, then the size criteria of the financial year; the app derives the size class.
3. Activate for free. The financial year overview then shows that your first annual accounts are free. With the Activate for free button you open the financial year, without paying.
4. Import figures and finish. Import the trial balance or XAF audit file, check the mapping to the annual accounts line items and complete the notes, for micro the disclosures below the balance sheet. In the Review & approve step you read through the whole document.
5. Adopt and file. Have the competent body adopt them: for a BV the general meeting, for a foundation the body designated by the articles of association art. 2:300(3) DCC. Make the publication version and file yourself or through your accountant. Record the KVK receipt reference in the file.

Unsure whether you can do it yourself, or would you rather outsource? Read prepare annual accounts yourself or outsource and the steps in filing annual accounts with the KVK.

Sources

• KVK: Filing with SBR (updated 5 March 2026)
• KVK: Filing your annual accounts yourself (updated 10 September 2026)
• KVK: Final deadline for filing annual accounts (updated 10 November 2025)
• Dutch Civil Code Book 2 (wetten.overheid.nl)
• Economic Offences Act (wetten.overheid.nl)
• Dutch Taxonomy (nltaxonomie.nl)

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