RJ 252 Provisions and obligations not recognised in the balance sheet

The short answer

RJ 252 determines when you form a provision: at the balance sheet date there is an obligation arising from a past event, an outflow of money is probable and the amount can be estimated reliably. You then recognise the best estimate. For future operating losses and own risk you form nothing; those are not obligations.

Updated 30 October 2026

Key facts

Two kinds of provisions in the law

1. Provisions are recognised in the balance sheet against obligations of a clearly defined nature which at the balance sheet date are regarded as probable or certain, but for which it is not known to what extent or when they will arise. Provisions may also be recognised against expenditure to be incurred in a following financial year, insofar as the incurring of that expenditure originates in part before the end of the financial year and the provision serves to spread costs evenly over a number of financial years.

2. Impairment of an asset is not expressed by forming a provision.

The first sentence concerns obligations: warranties, claims, reorganisations, onerous contracts. RJ 252 elaborates these. The second sentence allows an equalisation provision; in practice that is almost only the provision for major maintenance, which RJ 212 regulates. Paragraph 2 keeps the receivables and inventory allowance out of the liabilities: those impairments are deducted from the asset itself (RJ 252.104). Other chapters with their own rules take precedence: work in progress, taxes and employee benefits (RJ 252.103).

The three conditions for a provision

1. An obligation at the balance sheet date, under contract or law, or in fact because your conduct or a commitment raised a justified expectation. If you can still avoid the expenditure by acting differently in future, there is no obligation (RJ 252.203 and 204).
2. A probable outflow. The chance that you must pay is greater than the chance that you do not. For many similar obligations, such as warranties, you look at the group.
3. A reliable estimate. If that truly is not possible, which is exceptional, you form no provision and disclose the obligation in the notes (RJ 252.201 and 508).

All three must hold (RJ 252.201). A risk in itself, however well it can be quantified, is not yet an obligation.

How much: the best estimate

• Best estimate: the amount for which you could settle the obligation or have it transferred at the balance sheet date (RJ 252.301 and 302). For many similar cases the expected value, for a single case the most likely outcome (RJ 252.304 and 305).
• Present value if the interest effect is material; if settlement takes at most a year, nominal is allowed. You discount at a pre-tax rate; the market rate on high-quality corporate bonds is the most obvious, and without a liquid market the yield on government bonds. The annual unwinding is an interest expense (RJ 252.306 and 317; RJk B10.106).
• No offsetting. An expected gain on the sale of assets does not count (RJ 252.309); a reimbursement from an insurer goes on the balance sheet as a separate asset, only if it is probable (RJ 252.311).
• Anew every year. You reassess the provision at each balance sheet date and release it if the outflow is no longer probable. You use a provision only for the expenditure for which it was formed (RJ 252.314, 318 and 319).

Common types

Major maintenance: provision or components

For periodic major maintenance you choose: capitalise the costs as a separately depreciable component, or add to a maintenance provision annually (RJ 212.445; RJk B2.122). Expensing directly is allowed only for ordinary, frequent maintenance (RJ 212.447). You build up the provision per component to the expected amount and the time until the next job, usually nominal (RJ 212.451).

Since financial year 2026 RJ 212.451 provides that a revised estimate of the amount or timing of the maintenance is spread over the remaining build-up period, without a catch-up charge; whoever did otherwise before may apply that change prospectively (RJ 212.810; RJ-Uiting 2025-3A). More on the method is at major maintenance provision and RJ 212.

Obligations and assets not recognised in the balance sheet

What does not become a provision must sometimes still go in the notes (art. 2:376 and 2:381(1) DCC): guarantees for the debts of others, chain liability, a claim you will probably not lose or cannot quantify, and multi-year obligations such as rent and operating leases. Per category you give the nature and, where possible, an estimate; where an outflow is very unlikely, this is not needed (RJ 252.509). If the entity is in a fiscal unity for corporate income tax or VAT, you state that (RJ 252.517; RJk B10.205).

Conversely you also disclose contingent assets, such as a claim you have filed yourself: briefly the nature, and an estimate of the amount if an inflow is probable. Such an asset goes on the balance sheet only when the income is virtually certain (RJ 252.518 and 521).

Version per financial year

By size class

Case: a printing company closes a branch

Drukkerij Middenweg BV (fictitious), medium-sized, decides on 10 December 2026 to close its Zuid branch on 31 March 2027. The plan names the branch, the six jobs that disappear, the costs and the timetable. On 15 December 2026 the board informs the staff and the works council. That satisfies both conditions for a reorganisation provision before the balance sheet date.

Everything is paid in 2027, so the provision is stated nominal. Middenweg first writes off the fit-out of the premises (carrying amount € 8.000) as an impairment, outside the provision (RJ 252.407); the 2026 result falls by € 164.000 in total. The notes show the movement from € 0 to € 156.000, the nature, the assumptions and that everything is settled within a year.

What if the staff only hear of the plan on 12 January 2027? Then the expectation is raised after the balance sheet date but before the accounts are prepared. Middenweg may then choose: recognise the provision anyway, or omit it and disclose the reorganisation as an event after the balance sheet date; it applies that choice in the same way every time (RJ 252.416; RJk B10.121).

Per class. As a small entity under the RJk, Middenweg forms the same € 156.000 and states the basis; it may mention movement and nature. As a micro entity there is one line for provisions, without notes.

Common mistakes

• Forming a provision for next year's losses or for a risk you bear yourself.
• A reorganisation provision based only on a board decision, without a detailed plan or announcement.
• Putting marketing, investments or operating losses in the reorganisation provision.
• Calling a provision a ‘reserve’; it is debt (RJ 252.501).
• Using a provision for something other than what it was formed for, so that two events disappear into one amount.

How it works in Jaarrekening.io

The provisions register in the bookkeeping of Jaarrekening.io covers types such as major maintenance, warranty, anniversary, reorganisation and onerous contract. For major maintenance the app spreads the amount still to be built up evenly over the periods until the work is done, and a plan change over the remaining periods. A provision at present value gets an unwinding that is booked as an interest expense. For each provision and each category the app produces a movement statement with the portion longer than a year. You confirm every amount yourself; whether an obligation exists remains your judgement.

Sources

• Art. 2:374 DCC, the statutory rules on provisions (wetten.overheid.nl)
• Art. 2:376 DCC: liability for the debts of others
• Art. 2:381 DCC: obligations not recognised in the balance sheet
• RJ-Uiting 2024-13: examples of unrecognised obligations (rjnet.nl)
• RJ-Uiting 2025-10: final amendments to RJk B10 and other chapters (rjnet.nl)
• RJ-Uiting 2026-5A: Pillar 2 in RJ 252.517 (rjnet.nl)

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