KVK extract or annual accounts: what is the difference and who asks for which document?
What a KVK extract shows and what the annual accounts (jaarrekening) show, what each costs, how old an extract may be and how to find out which document a bank, landlord or tender authority means.
The short answer
A KVK extract shows who a company is and who may sign: legal form, establishments, officers. The annual accounts with the figures are not on it; you buy them separately for € 3,90 per document (rate of 1 January 2026). If a bank, landlord or tender authority asks for KVK documents, ask which of the two it wants and how old it may be.
Updated 30 October 2026
Key facts
| The extract answers | Who the company is and who may sign: legal form, establishment, officers and signing authority; the content differs per legal form |
| The annual accounts answer | How the company is doing financially: the balance sheet, and for medium-sized and large entities also (part of) the profit and loss account |
| Are the annual accounts on the extract? | No; according to the KVK the annual accounts are a separate product |
| Extract rate | € 2,95 view online; € 9,60 digitally certified; € 19,20 certified on paper (rate overview as of 1 January 2026) |
| Annual accounts rate | € 3,90 download; € 9,60 digitally certified |
| How old may an extract be? | The recipient decides; according to the KVK most organisations ask for an extract no older than a month |
What an extract answers and what annual accounts answer
Both documents belong to the Dutch Business Register (Handelsregister), but they are about different things. The extract is an overview of the details currently in the register. The annual accounts are a document that the legal entity itself has prepared about a closed financial year and filed with the KVK.
| Your question | The KVK extract | The filed annual accounts |
|---|---|---|
| Who is the director and who may represent the company? | Yes: the officers and who has signing authority | No; the extract is the source for that |
| What is the address, when was the company founded and is it bankrupt? | Yes; the KVK names these as points to check | No; the document is about the figures of a closed financial year |
| How large is the equity? | No | Yes, on the balance sheet |
| Can the company pay its current liabilities? | No | Yes, derivable from cash, receivables and current liabilities |
| What are turnover and profit? | No | Micro and small entities do not publish them; medium-sized partly, large fully (per class) |
| What date is the information from? | The position at the time it is drawn up; date and time are on the extract | The position at the balance sheet date, often months to over a year earlier |
| Is there always a document? | Yes for every registered company, including a sole proprietorship or vof | Only if the legal form must file: a BV or NV does, a sole proprietorship does not |
What is on an extract differs per legal form, according to the KVK. For a BV or NV it includes the directors, for a sole proprietorship the owner and for a vof or partnership (maatschap) the partners.
The two documents complement each other and neither replaces the other. For a sole proprietorship or ordinary vof the extract is often the only KVK document you can get, because those legal forms do not file (does a vof have to file annual accounts?). If you then want to know how the business is doing, ask the owner or the partners themselves for figures.
Which extract do you order, and what does it cost?
The KVK offers three forms of the extract:
- View online. The extract appears directly on screen. According to the KVK it is not certified and therefore not an official document.
- Digitally certified. You receive a PDF by e-mail with a qualified electronic seal. According to the KVK you can buy it without logging in, with iDEAL or a credit card.
- Certified on paper. According to the KVK the extract arrives by post within five working days.
| Product | Rate as of 1 January 2026 |
|---|---|
| Extract, view online | € 2,95 |
| Extract, digitally certified, download | € 9,60 |
| Extract, certified on paper | € 19,20 |
| Filed document, such as annual accounts, download | € 3,90 |
| The same document, digitally certified | € 9,60 |
According to the rate overview these products are exempt from VAT, and all prices are subject to change; so check the order screen before you pay. If you want to know both who signs and how the company is doing, a digitally certified extract plus one set of annual accounts costs € 9,60 + € 3,90 = € 13,50. For yourself, if nobody requires a certified document, viewing online plus the ordinary download is € 2,95 + € 3,90 = € 6,85. How to order the annual accounts yourself is explained in ordering annual accounts from the KVK.
How old may an extract be?
The KVK writes that an extract is valid for as long as the organisation or company asking for it accepts it, and that most organisations want an extract no older than a month. So according to the KVK there is no fixed shelf life: the recipient sets the period. Ask it beforehand, because an extract that is too old has to be ordered again.
According to the KVK, the seal of a digitally certified extract is valid indefinitely. That concerns the authenticity and unchanged state of the file, not whether the details are still correct: the content shows the position at the moment the extract was drawn up.
For annual accounts, a different kind of age applies. They do not expire, but they become outdated. A BV may file its annual accounts up to twelve months after the end of the financial year (art. 2:394(3) DCC), so the newest filed balance sheet may already be over a year old on the day a bank or landlord reads it. How to weigh that is explained in checking a supplier's financial position.
Who asks for which document?
What a party actually requires is in its own conditions or documents. Below is what the sources say, and where the source is silent, that is stated.
The landlord of business premises
The KVK advises a landlord to request the extract of the tenant's company and to check whether the person who wants to rent may sign on behalf of the company (page updated 6 July 2026). That check is about who signs. It does not show whether the rent is affordable: the page does not mention the annual accounts. A landlord who also wants to assess ability to pay can retrieve the filed annual accounts or ask the tenant for figures; that is his own judgement, not a KVK requirement. The example below shows what the difference makes.
The bank
The KVK names banking matters as one of the reasons to request a certified extract of your own company. Which documents a bank wants beyond that is decided by the bank itself, and for a credit application the public balance sheet is often not enough: see is the KVK balance sheet enough for my bank?. For a mortgage as an entrepreneur the lender sets the requirements (which annual figures do I need for a mortgage?).
The tender authority
PIANOo, the Dutch public procurement expertise centre, lists as evidence of financial and economic capacity, among other things, a bank statement or proof of insurance against professional risks, annual accounts or extracts of them, and information on turnover. By extracts it means extracts from annual accounts, not KVK extracts: the page does not mention the latter in this context. According to PIANOo turnover requirements are in principle not allowed; if a tender authority sets one anyway, it must explain why in the tender documents. Which evidence, for which years and in which form, is in the documents of that one tender. Read those before you order anything.
A supplier or customer
Anyone who wants to know who they are contracting with looks up the company by KVK number and requests the extract: name, legal form, signing authority. Anyone who wants to know whether the counterparty can pay its bills reads the annual accounts. A careful check uses both.
Example: two tenants with the same extract
Fictional example: a landlord offers business premises for € 4.500 per month, so € 54.000 per year. Two private limited companies (BV) want to rent. Voorbeeld Installatie B.V. has 9 employees and net turnover of € 1,3 million. Voorbeeld Bouwservice B.V. has 11 employees and € 1,6 million net turnover. Both have been small for two years and therefore file a balance sheet without a profit and loss account (art. 2:396(8) DCC). The extract of both shows one director who may sign alone, so there is no difference there. The landlord therefore also orders the newest annual accounts of both: 2 × € 3,90 = € 7,80.
| Line item | Voorbeeld Installatie B.V. | Voorbeeld Bouwservice B.V. |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed assets | € 200.000 | € 160.000 |
| Receivables | € 210.000 | € 220.000 |
| Cash and cash equivalents | € 110.000 | € 90.000 |
| Balance sheet total | € 520.000 | € 470.000 |
| Equity | € 142.000 | € 36.000 |
| Liabilities longer than one year | € 120.000 | € 114.000 |
| Liabilities up to and including one year | € 258.000 | € 320.000 |
| Total liabilities and equity | € 520.000 | € 470.000 |
- Solvency. € 142.000 / € 520.000 = 27,3% for Installatie, € 36.000 / € 470.000 = 7,7% for Bouwservice.
- Current ratio. (€ 210.000 + € 110.000) / € 258.000 = 1,24 for Installatie, (€ 220.000 + € 90.000) / € 320.000 = 0,97 for Bouwservice.
- Working capital. € 320.000 − € 258.000 = € 62.000 for Installatie; for Bouwservice it is a shortfall of € 10.000.
- One year's rent against equity. € 54.000 is 38,0% of Installatie's equity and one and a half times that of Bouwservice.
The extract gave the landlord no reason to tell the two apart; the balance sheet did. For Installatie, solvency and current ratio are within the guideline values the KVK mentions (25% to 40% and 1,2 to 1,5). For Bouwservice the equity is smaller than one year's rent and the current ratio is below 1, which according to the KVK is not a sign of a healthy company. The landlord can now ask targeted follow-up questions: about current figures for the running year, or about a deposit, a bank guarantee or a guarantee from the shareholder. Which security is suitable he discusses with his lawyer; this is not legal advice. And for both it holds: the balance sheet shows the position at the balance sheet date and not what has happened since.
How to settle it with whoever is asking
- Ask which document it is. Do not answer with 'I will send the KVK documents', but ask whether it concerns the extract, the annual accounts or both, and for which legal entity. For a holding company with an operating company these are two KVK numbers and so two documents.
- Ask how old it may be. For the extract, a month is a commonly requested limit according to the KVK. For the annual accounts, ask whether the newest filed set is enough or whether the recipient also wants figures for the running year.
- Ask in which form. Must the extract be digitally certified (€ 9,60), or is viewing online (€ 2,95) enough? The latter is not an official document.
- Check the legal form. A sole proprietorship or ordinary vof does not file annual accounts. Then offer figures you have prepared yourself, stating the reference date.
- Order afterwards. According to the KVK you buy the extract without logging in. For the annual accounts, read the steps in ordering annual accounts from the KVK.
If you prepare the annual accounts that the bank or landlord wants to see yourself, the first one in your Jaarrekening.io account is zero euro, regardless of size class; see preparing annual accounts for free and what do annual accounts cost?. What the KVK charges for a document is separate from that, as shown in the table above.
Source and date
The KVK pages on the extract, on checking a company and on safely renting out business premises were read on 30 October 2026; the last two were updated on 6 July 2026 and the pages on the extract itself show no edit date. The PIANOo page does not show a date either. Every KVK rate on this page is in the overview that the KVK put into effect on 1 January 2026; from 2027 it may differ. The example is fictional.
Sources
- KVK: Request a Business Register extract
- KVK: Business Register extract, digitally certified
- KVK: What is on an extract?
- KVK: Check a company via an extract (updated 6 July 2026)
- KVK: Prevent criminal use of your business premises (updated 6 July 2026)
- KVK: Rate overview as of 1 January 2026 (pdf)
- KVK: Requesting annual accounts
- PIANOo: Financial and economic capacity (suitability requirements)
- Statutory text art. 2:394 DCC: the period within which the annual accounts must be made public (wetten.overheid.nl)
- Statutory text art. 2:396 DCC: what a small legal entity leaves out when making accounts public, paragraph 8
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a KVK extract and annual accounts?
An extract is an overview of the details currently held in the Dutch Business Register: legal form, establishments, officers and who has signing authority. The annual accounts are a separate document about a closed financial year, including the balance sheet. According to the KVK, the annual accounts are not on the extract; you order them separately, at € 3,90 per document under the rate of 1 January 2026.
Are turnover or profit on the KVK extract?
No. The extract is not an annual account: it shows no balance sheet, turnover or profit. At most you find turnover and profit in the filed annual accounts, and for a micro or small entity they are usually not there, because such an entity does not publish a profit and loss account.
How old may a KVK extract be?
According to the KVK, an extract is valid for as long as the organisation asking for it accepts it, and most organisations ask for an extract no older than a month. So ask the party that will receive the extract beforehand how old it may be.
What does a KVK extract cost?
According to the KVK rate overview as of 1 January 2026: € 2,95 to view online, € 9,60 digitally certified and € 19,20 certified on paper. Downloading a filed annual account costs € 3,90. The products are exempt from VAT and prices may change; check the order screen.
What is the difference between viewing online and a digitally certified extract?
Viewing online shows the extract on screen; according to the KVK it is not certified and not an official document. A digitally certified extract is a PDF sent by e-mail with a qualified electronic seal. If you have to give it to a bank, landlord or tender authority, ask which form they accept.
What does a bank ask for: an extract or the annual accounts?
The bank decides that itself. The KVK names banking matters as an example of a reason to request a certified extract of your own company. A credit application needs financial data and the public balance sheet is often not enough; ask your contact which documents, periods and versions are needed.
What proof does a tender authority ask for to show financial capacity?
That is set out in the tender documents. PIANOo lists as possible evidence a bank statement, insurance against professional risks, annual accounts or extracts of them and information on turnover. According to PIANOo a turnover requirement is in principle not allowed and otherwise has to be justified in the documents.
What can a landlord request from a tenant that is a BV?
The KVK advises landlords to request the extract of the tenant's company and to check whether the person who wants to rent may sign on behalf of the company. If the landlord also wants to assess the financial position, he can retrieve the filed annual accounts or ask the tenant for figures.
Read more
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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