Dutch annual accounts of a micro entity

The short answer

A micro entity stays within two of three limits on two consecutive balance sheet dates: balance sheet total € 450.000, net turnover € 900.000, fewer than 10 employees (art. 2:395a(1) DCC). You prepare a limited balance sheet and profit and loss account, without notes, management report or audit by an accountant. With the KVK (Dutch Chamber of Commerce) you file only the limited balance sheet.

Updated 30 October 2026

Key facts

When are you a micro entity?

The class follows from the law, not from a choice. What decides is whether the entity, on two consecutive balance sheet dates, meets two or three of the requirements below (art. 2:395a(1) DCC).

For 2023 you could already apply the higher amounts (Stb. 2024, 52).

Two balance sheet dates, not one

One outlier changes nothing. Only when, on two balance sheet dates in a row, you no longer meet two requirements does the regime lapse, and it then takes effect for the second year.

First financial year, group and exceptions

• New entity. If you meet the requirements on the balance sheet date of the first financial year, the regime applies for the first and the second financial year (art. 2:398(1) DCC).
• Group. Figures of group companies that you would have to consolidate count, unless you apply art. 2:408 DCC (art. 2:395a(2) DCC). If the holding is at the head of a group, it therefore tests with the group figures. A personal holding with one operating company is not always the group head; if it is not, it tests on its own figures (art. 2:24b DCC; RJk M1.109).
• Excluded. Participation companies (participatieondernemingen), certain investment companies and public-interest entities (art. 2:398(3), (6) and (7) DCC).

Work out your own figures with the size class calculator or read the background at the size criteria.

What do you prepare?

A micro entity also prepares a balance sheet and a profit and loss account; the law only limits the number of items.

For recognition and valuation per item, a micro entity follows the chapters of the RJk for small entities; guideline M1 of the Raad voor de Jaarverslaggeving (Dutch Accounting Standards Board) only names where a micro entity deviates from them (RJk M1.301).

What do you make public?

Preparing and publishing are two things. You present the profit and loss account to the shareholders, but it does not go to the Business Register: art. 2:394 DCC applies to a micro entity only to the balance sheet that is limited under paragraphs 3 and 4 (art. 2:395a(8) DCC).

• Public: the limited balance sheet, with the statements at the bottom and the date of adoption (art. 2:394(1) DCC).
• Not public: the profit and loss account, and with it turnover, wages and result.

Anyone who requests the filed annual accounts therefore sees the asset position and not the profit; see is the publication balance sheet enough for the bank?.

Do micro annual accounts have notes?

Not in the usual sense: art. 2:395a(6) DCC switches off section 5 and, of section 6, only the prescribed disclosures in the notes. The valuation rules of section 6 continue to apply; paragraph 7 allows tax principles under conditions. An accounting policies section, movement schedules and the disclosure of obligations not included in the balance sheet are therefore not prescribed. A micro entity may not value at market value, so no financial instruments or investment property at current value (RJk M1.303); in the first year as micro you adjust the comparative figures without explaining that change of policy (RJk M1.304). What remains is on the balance sheet itself.

• At the top: whether the appropriation of the result has been processed in the balance sheet (art. 2:362(2) DCC).
• At the bottom: that no accruals and deferrals have been included, if you use that exemption (art. 2:395a(3) DCC).
• At the bottom, only for an NV: the details on acquisition and disposal of own shares (art. 2:395a(4) DCC).
• The statement that you apply tax principles, if you choose that (art. 2:395a(7) DCC).
• At the bottom, if you apply art. 2:408 DCC: that you do so (art. 2:408(3) DCC).

Section 2 continues to apply: you provide additional information if the view given requires it (art. 2:362(4) DCC). According to guideline M1 this happens in exceptional circumstances, such as material uncertainty about continuity. For financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2026, that additional information is also in the filed balance sheet (RJk M1.401); for financial year 2025 and earlier that was not yet prescribed.

Is an audit by an accountant mandatory?

No. Section 9 of Title 9, with the audit requirement of art. 2:393 DCC, does not apply to a micro entity (art. 2:395a(6) DCC). You may prepare and file it yourself.

A compilation report is not mandatory either; a bank may ask for one. The audit requirement only comes into view when you end two balance sheet dates in a row outside the limits of the small entity: € 7,5 mln balance sheet total, € 15 mln turnover, 50 employees.

Filing: routes and periods

A micro entity files digitally via SBR; this is mandatory for financial years that began on or after 1 January 2016 (art. 2(1) Besluit elektronische deponering handelsregister, the Dutch decree on electronic filing with the Business Register). The KVK names two routes.

1. KVK Zelf Deponeren portal. You fill in the balance sheet and send it; you can log in with eHerkenning, an access code or email address and password with authorisation.
2. Software with SBR. Your bookkeeper, accountant or own software submits an XBRL file via Digipoort.

An NV has the same preparation period (art. 2:101(1) DCC), a cooperative six months with at most four months' extension (art. 2:58(1) DCC). You calculate your dates with the filing deadline calculator; the steps are in the guide to filing with the KVK.

Worked example: a fictitious web shop BV from micro to small

For 2025 nothing changes: the BV still publishes only the limited balance sheet. For 2026 the rules for the small entity apply: a balance sheet with more items and notes, both of which become public. Had turnover fallen back to € 880.000 in 2026 with a balance sheet total of € 440.000, the BV would have remained micro.

Micro next to small

Read on at the small entity and, for the audit requirement and management report, at the medium-sized entity.

Common mistakes

• Looking only at turnover. It is about two of the three requirements, on two balance sheet dates.
• Waiting for the corporate income tax return. A postponement from the Belastingdienst (Dutch Tax Administration) does not shift the period at the KVK.
• Leaving an old financial year unfiled; see annual accounts filed late.

Micro annual accounts in Jaarrekening.io

In Jaarrekening.io you import an XAF audit file or a trial balance in Excel or CSV. The app derives the size class from your figures and, next to the annual accounts, produces a publication version with only the limited balance sheet. For financial years 2023 up to and including 2026 you can download an XBRL file: a validation candidate that you have checked before use with SBR software or by your accountant. The app itself submits nothing to the KVK. Price: € 250 excl. VAT per set of annual accounts, once per financial year; the first annual accounts in your account are free.

Sources

• Art. 2:395a DCC (micro entity)
• Art. 2:398 DCC (first financial year and exceptions)
• Art. 2:394 DCC (disclosure)
• Staatsblad 2024, 52 (increase of the limits)
• Besluit elektronische deponering handelsregister (decree on electronic filing with the Business Register)
• KVK: filing micro and small
• KVK: Zelf Deponeren portal
• RJ-Uiting 2025-3B, guideline M1 (pdf); adopted and included in RJk M1 (amended 2025), paragraph 401
• Directive 2013/34/EU, art. 2 under 15

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