What do Dutch annual accounts cost?

The short answer

Annual accounts cost the preparation, plus an accountant if you need or want one. The KVK charges nothing for filing. Jaarrekening.io makes the first annual accounts in your account free; after that you pay per financial year from € 250 for micro to € 5.000 for large, excl. VAT. Medium-sized and large entities also pay for the statutory audit.

Updated 30 October 2026

Key facts

What do the costs consist of?

Anyone who asks what annual accounts cost often gets back a single amount. In reality you add up seven items. Which apply to you depends on your size class and on what you do yourself.

Preparation: yourself, by a bookkeeping firm or by an accountant

Preparation is the only item everyone has. The law places preparing with the board art. 2:210(1) DCC; who does the work is your choice.

Yourself, with software

You pay a fixed price and do the work. At Jaarrekening.io, after the free first one, that is € 250 for micro, € 500 for small, € 2.000 for medium-sized and € 5.000 for large, per entity per financial year and excl. VAT. How software suppliers build their prices is on what does annual accounts software cost?

By a bookkeeping firm or bookkeeper

The firm that keeps your administration often also prepares the annual accounts and the corporate income tax return. You pay according to a quote, as a fixed price or by time spent. A compilation report only comes with it if an accountant takes part in the work; see the question whether a bookkeeper may issue a report

By an accountant

An accounting firm prepares with its own software and can add a compilation report. For medium-sized and large, an accountant also performs the statutory audit, as a separate assignment.

What determines the price at a firm

• The state of the administration: are bank, accounts receivable, accounts payable and clearing accounts reconciled?
• The number of entities: every BV is a separate file.
• Difficult items: participating interests, provisions, work in progress, a current account with the DGA.
• The size class: small requires notes, medium-sized also a management report.
• What else is in the assignment: the corporate income tax return, the filing or a discussion of the figures.

Online, many amounts circulate for having annual accounts prepared. As long as it is not clear which work they include, they say little. Ask for a quote with the work spelled out and put two quotes side by side on the same points.

Compilation report and statutory audit

Micro and small have no audit requirement, unless it concerns a public-interest entity art. 2:398(7) DCC. For micro, the section on the expert examination does not apply art. 2:395a(6) DCC; for small, the assignment for examination lapses art. 2:396(7) DCC.

A compilation report is then a choice. In it the accountant declares that he compiled the annual accounts from your data; he does not audit the figures. Banks and grant providers sometimes ask for it. First ask what the bank exactly wants to see; see also is a publication balance sheet enough for the bank?

Medium-sized and large entities instruct an accountant to examine the annual accounts art. 2:393(1) DCC, except a subsidiary that applies the group scheme art. 2:403(3) DCC. Without the accountant's report the competent body cannot in principle adopt the annual accounts (paragraph 7). That audit is a separate assignment with its own fee, on top of the preparation. A file that reconciles and is traceable saves the accountant research work.

For a large entity the auditor's report is filed in the same format as the annual accounts, and an XBRL file cannot go through the KVK portal (KVK, large business class). Count on the accountant's SBR software for that.

Filing: € 0 at the KVK

For the filing itself you pay the KVK nothing: “Filing annual accounts is free” (KVK, Filing with SBR, updated 5 March 2026). The authorisation to sign in with e-mail address and password is also free (KVK, Self-filing, updated 10 September 2026).

If you do see an amount for filing, it is the rate of an adviser who does it for you, not of the KVK. Belgian amounts for filing with the National Bank also turn up in Dutch search results; they do not apply here.

Costs around filing arise only from the means you choose: eHerkenning, SBR software with a PKIoverheid certificate, or an intermediary. More on this in what does filing with the KVK cost?

Worked examples

The examples assume a new account at Jaarrekening.io and mention only amounts that are fixed; they are always exclusive of VAT. What an accountant charges is in his quote and is therefore listed here as an item without an amount.

Micro BV

A BV is micro if on two consecutive balance sheet dates it meets two of three limits: at most € 450.000 in assets, at most € 900.000 net turnover and on average fewer than ten employees art. 2:395a(1) DCC. In the first year the DGA prepares with the free annual accounts and files with a KVK account: € 0. Every following financial year costs € 250 excl. VAT.

Holding company with operating company

Two entities means two sets of annual accounts. In one account the first is free: if both are small, the first year costs € 500 and every following year € 1.000, excl. VAT. If both are micro, then € 250 and after that € 500, also excl. VAT. Consolidated annual accounts are as a rule not needed for a small group art. 2:407(2) DCC. More calculations are at the costs of a holding company.

Foundation under Title 9

Only a foundation that falls under art. 2:360(3) DCC prepares annual accounts under Title 9. If it is small, the first year is free and every following year costs € 500 excl. VAT. If the foundation receives a grant, read the decision: it determines whether an auditor's report is needed.

Medium-sized BV

In a new account the preparation costs nothing, after that € 2.000 excl. VAT per financial year. In addition you agree the statutory audit with an accountant. Filing goes via SBR or by uploading the adopted documents in the KVK portal; signing in there for medium-sized is possible only with a KVK account.

Do you want to calculate with the quotes you received yourself? Enter them in the cost calculator.

Your own time

With software, work shifts from the firm to you. Count on these tasks, even if the app produces the amounts and the layout for you:

• closing the administration: depreciation, accruals and the tax liability;
• checking the mapping of accounts to annual accounts line items, certainly for accounts without an RGS code;
• from small, completing the notes with what only you know, such as security you gave the bank and events after the balance sheet date; for micro it concerns a few disclosures below the balance sheet;
• reading the whole document in the Review & approve step;
• arranging the adoption resolution and filing.

How much time that takes depends mainly on the administration. A trial balance that balances and reconciles with the bank saves the most work, for yourself and for a firm.

Comparing prices: what is included?

Prices for annual accounts vary widely, also between programs. Compare them only once you know what you get for the amount. These questions help:

• Do you get the full annual accounts for the general meeting, or only the figures for filing?
• Are notes included that fit your class, with the accounting policies?
• Is there a management report if your class requires it?
• Do the comparative figures of last year come along, and do they reconcile?
• Do you get an XBRL file for your class, and who submits it?
• Which legal forms and classes work: only the micro BV, or also small, medium-sized, the foundation and the cooperative?
• Do you pay per entity, per user or per account, and is a subscription attached?

At Jaarrekening.io the notes, the management report where needed, comparative figures, publication version and an XBRL file as a validation candidate (financial years starting in 2023 up to and including 2026) are in the price per financial year; you or your accountant submit it. A program that only produces the public balance sheet solves a different problem than a program for the full annual accounts. Both can fit, if you know which of the two you are buying.

How to keep costs low

• Start with the free first annual accounts and see whether preparing yourself suits you.
• Close the administration before you or a firm starts on the annual accounts.
• Request the KVK authorisation well before the deadline; the code comes by letter.
• Have an accountant look along on the points where you are unsure, instead of outsourcing the whole file.
• When outsourcing, ask for a fixed price with described work.
• File on time: filing late can lead to a fine, and in a bankruptcy to personal liability.

Unsure between doing it yourself and outsourcing? The trade-off is at prepare annual accounts yourself or outsource.

Sources

• KVK: Filing with SBR (updated 5 March 2026)
• KVK: Self-filing your annual accounts (updated 10 September 2026)
• KVK: Filing annual accounts, large business class (updated 7 January 2026)
• Dutch Civil Code Book 2 (wetten.overheid.nl)

Read more