Abridged annual accounts: what you make public and what stays internal

The short answer

Abridged annual accounts is the common name for the publication documents of micro and small legal entities. A micro BV makes only an abridged balance sheet public, a small BV an abridged balance sheet with notes. The profit and loss account stays internal. You still prepare the annual accounts that the general meeting adopts; the abridged version is derived from them.

Updated 30 October 2026

Key facts

Two versions from one source

The law does not know the term abridged annual accounts. It arranges things as follows: the publication duty of art. 2:394 DCC applies for a micro legal entity only to the abridged balance sheet (art. 2:395a(8) DCC) and for a small legal entity only to the abridged balance sheet and the notes (art. 2:396(8) DCC).

In practice this produces two documents. The internal annual accounts are the annual accounts as the board prepares them and the general meeting adopts them, with a profit and loss account. The publication documents are derived from them and go to the Business Register. The filed document states the day of adoption (art. 2:394(1) DCC).

The exemptions are a right, not a duty. They apply insofar as the general meeting has not decided otherwise no later than six months after the beginning of the financial year (art. 2:398(2) DCC). How you make the publication version is in the guide to preparing publication documents.

What is and is not in it

What the small BV discloses in the notes is covered under notes. The structure of the items is at preparing the balance sheet.

Worked example: what a reader can still see

A small BV files an abridged balance sheet for 2025. In summary it contains the amounts below. The result was € 44.550; of that, € 10.000 was paid out as dividend. The balance sheet is fictitious.

A supplier or competitor who requests this document can get more out of it than you might expect. Solvency is 140.000 / 310.000 = 45%. Working capital is € 225.000 − € 100.000 = € 125.000. Equity grew by € 34.550, and that is also the retained part of the result.

What the reader does not see: the turnover, the margin, the wage costs, the full result of € 44.550 and the dividend of € 10.000. The abridged version therefore protects the profit and loss account, not the financial position.

Publication per size class

A medium-sized legal entity therefore does not publish abridged annual accounts in this sense. It may simplify the balance sheet and the profit and loss account, but both become public.

Three examples: who files what?

The legal form determines whether there is a duty to file, the size class determines what you file. Three fictitious legal entities, each with a different route to their class, show what that means in practice. The amounts reconcile arithmetically and apply to financial year 2025.

Micro BV: Koenen Webdesign BV

Koenen Webdesign BV has three employees, a net turnover of € 410.000 for 2025 and a balance sheet total of € 186.000 on 31 December 2025. There are no subsidiaries. On all three criteria the BV stays below the micro limit (assets ≤ € 450.000, net turnover ≤ € 900.000, < 10 employees), and that also held on 31 December 2024: it is micro. The document that goes to the Business Register is the abridged balance sheet and nothing else (art. 2:395a(8) DCC).

The turnover of € 410.000, the wage costs and the profit are in the internal document and stay there. Voluntary disclosures below the micro balance sheet are only included if the BV chooses so (RJk M1.402). The general meeting adopts the annual accounts on 24 June 2026; the document must be with the KVK by 2 July 2026 at the latest (art. 2:394(1) DCC). The limit of twelve months after the financial year, 31 December 2026, only comes into play if adoption does not happen (para. 3).

Small holding: Holding Verbruggen BV

Holding Verbruggen BV owns all the shares in Verbruggen Installatie BV and determines its policy. The holding itself has € 520.000 in assets, of which € 400.000 is the participating interest, no turnover and no staff. The operating company has € 2,2 mln in assets, a net turnover of € 4,6 mln and an average of 31 employees.

Because the holding directs the operating company centrally, it counts on a group basis (art. 2:396(2) DCC): assets € 520.000 − € 400.000 + € 2.200.000 = € 2.320.000, turnover € 4,6 mln and 31 employees. The participating interest therefore does not count twice. All three figures are above the micro limit and below the limit for small (assets ≤ € 7,5 mln, net turnover ≤ € 15 mln, < 50 employees); assuming this also held a year earlier, the holding is small, even though its own balance sheet is modest.

The holding therefore files the abridged balance sheet with notes, without a profit and loss account (art. 2:396(8) DCC). Its single-entity balance sheet balances: € 520.000 assets (the participating interest of € 400.000 and € 120.000 other) against € 430.000 equity and € 90.000 liabilities. A consolidated annual account does not have to be added: consolidation may be omitted if the group stays within the limits of small on a consolidated basis, none of the companies is a public-interest entity and the general meeting does not object in writing within six months after the beginning of the financial year (art. 2:407(2) DCC). The subsidiary is itself small too and files for itself in the same way.

If the holding does not provide central direction, it is not a group head and tests on its own figures (RJk M1.109). It can then be micro, unless it is a participation company (participatieonderneming) (art. 2:398(6) DCC). See the annual accounts of a holding and the example at article 2:395a DCC.

Foundation with a business: Stichting Sportcentrum De Dijk

Stichting Sportcentrum De Dijk operates a swimming pool and a sports hall with a café and is registered in the Business Register with that business. The net turnover of the business was € 7,1 mln in 2023, € 7,8 mln in 2024 and € 8,3 mln in 2025. Two consecutive financial years of at least € 7,5 mln, half the amount in art. 2:396(1)(b) DCC, means that Title 9 applies (art. 2:360(3) DCC). Without that turnover there would be nothing to file.

For the size class, a foundation counts the total assets of the legal entity itself, plus the net turnover and the number of employees of the business (art. 2:398(5) DCC): assets € 4,1 mln, net turnover € 8,3 mln and an average of 38 employees. That is more than micro and within the limits for small (assets ≤ € 7,5 mln, net turnover ≤ € 15 mln, < 50 employees): the foundation is small.

It files the abridged balance sheet with notes, without a profit and loss account (art. 2:396(8) DCC), and has no audit requirement and no mandatory management report (art. 2:396(7) DCC). Grant providers or the articles of association may ask for more, but that is not a filing duty. If the foundation does not aim at profit, art. 2:396(9) DCC can exempt it from filing under two conditions; read must an association or foundation file the annual accounts. If turnover falls below € 7,5 mln, the duty only lapses after two financial years below it.

The three side by side

In all three cases the board prepares the annual accounts and the competent body adopts them; only the version for the Business Register is shorter. If you are doing this for the first time, you will find the steps in filing annual accounts with the KVK.

Common mistakes

• Filing the internal version. Then the profit and loss account is out in the open. The KVK does not remove a filed annual account; a correction is placed alongside it.
• Thinking the profit and loss account lapses. You prepare it and the general meeting adopts it; only the publication lapses.
• Applying micro within a group. The figures of group companies count (art. 2:395a(2) DCC); a holding that forms a group with its operating company is therefore often small; a personal holding that is not a group head tests on its own figures (RJk M1.109).
• Omitting the day of adoption. That disclosure is mandatory.
• Confusing abridged with provisional. An annual account not yet adopted is a different subject; see filing annual accounts that are not adopted.
• Sending the publication balance sheet to the bank. A lender may ask for more than the law makes public; see is the publication balance sheet enough for the bank.

The publication version in Jaarrekening.io

Jaarrekening.io derives from the adopted annual accounts a publication version limited to what your size class must make public. In addition, the app can make an XBRL file for every size class, for financial years beginning in 2023 up to and including 2026. That is a validation candidate: have it checked before use with SBR software or by your accountant. The app sends nothing to the KVK; you do the filing yourself.

Sources

• Art. 2:394 DCC: publication and statement of the day of adoption (wetten.overheid.nl)
• Art. 2:395a DCC: micro: abridged balance sheet and publication (wetten.overheid.nl)
• Art. 2:396 DCC: small: abridged balance sheet, notes and the exception of para. 9 (wetten.overheid.nl)
• Art. 2:397 DCC: medium-sized: simplified publication (wetten.overheid.nl)
• Art. 2:398 DCC: resolution of the general meeting and foundations and associations (wetten.overheid.nl)
• Art. 2:360 DCC: scope of Title 9, also for foundations and associations with a business (wetten.overheid.nl)
• Art. 2:407 DCC: consolidation omitted for a small group (wetten.overheid.nl)
• KVK: What do the annual accounts consist of?
• KVK: File the annual accounts or not?
• KVK: Filing your annual accounts yourself

Read more