Can I get a postponement or a waiver?
If you as an entrepreneur have payment problems, it is in all cases wise to ring the bell in time, if only to prevent the high enforcement costs.
There are possibilities for entrepreneurs to get a deferment of payment if there are (temporary) liquidity problems, but there are a number of problems.
An entrepreneur can “simply” request a postponement. You do this by filling in a form, which can be found on the website of the Tax Authorities. The recipient can then gain insight into your liquidity position and assess whether it is justified to grant you a postponement. You can then receive a maximum of 12 months, calculated from the (last) due date of the assessments. There is still a caveat; the recipient will only grant deferment if you can provide security for the debt and you must also keep a record of your current obligations.
In very special cases, the recipient can also grant an extension without security, for a longer period of time and even without keeping current obligations for a specific period. There must then be a cause beyond your control that causes temporary liquidity problems. There must also be a (substantiated) statement from a third-party expert showing that he also believes that you can recover. You must explicitly appeal to this special scheme. It is of course always the tax collector who decides whether you can get this postponement.
Note: You can never get these forms of postponement for motor vehicle tax
Entrepreneurs can also receive so-called short deferments. This postponement can even be granted by telephone. It is possible for a maximum amount of € 20.000 and for a maximum of 4 months after the last due date. It will only be granted if there are no attacks open for which a writ of execution has already been served and no criminal offenses may be open. So be there on time!
Once a short postponement has been granted, no “ordinary” postponement can be requested for these assessments. So you have to think carefully in advance if you can make it in those four months.
Can an entrepreneur also get a remission?
The answer is very simple with a running company does not grant the recipient a one-sided waiver. If you have already discontinued your business, you fall under the regime of ex-entrepreneurs and there are possibilities.
What is possible is that you try to conclude a so-called extrajudicial agreement with your creditors. This agreement, which, as the saying goes, comes about outside the court, does follow the (judicial) rules of the Natural Persons Debt Rescheduling Act. The recipient will cooperate in such an agreement if he believes that those rules are met. The agreement will have to be financed in one go, the Tax and Customs Administration does not cooperate with entrepreneurs, unlike private individuals, in the so-called savings variant, in which you pay off in a number of years and work towards that extrajudicial agreement.
Mr. RP (Rob) van Zon
Technical advisor at the National Collection Center of the tax authorities