When must annual accounts be filed with KVK? The deadlines

The deadlines around annual accounts are connected. Anyone who knows them knows when it really has to happen — and when a delay is still possible. Below are the three moments that count, with the legal basis for each.

1. Preparing: within 5 months

What has to happen in that period is set out step by step in drawing up annual accounts.

The management board must prepare the annual accounts within 5 months after the end of the financial year (article 2:210(1) Dutch Civil Code for a BV, article 2:101(1) Dutch Civil Code for an NV). The general meeting may extend that period by at most 5 months. For a calendar year that means: prepare before 1 June, with a delay until 1 November at the latest.

2. Filing: within 8 days after adoption

How that works in practice is explained in filing annual accounts with KVK.

As soon as the general meeting has adopted the annual accounts, the management board must file them with KVK within 8 days (article 2:394(1) Dutch Civil Code). Note: those 8 days count from the resolution to adopt, not from the moment you have finished the figures.

3. The fallback deadline: 12 months

If the annual accounts are not adopted — for example because the meeting does not convene or because there is disagreement — you file the prepared but not yet adopted annual accounts. For all legal forms the documents must be with KVK within 12 months after the end of the financial year. As soon as the annual accounts are adopted after all, you file the final version. KVK summarises the rules per situation in the deadline for filing.

Note the difference: for adopting the general meeting can give the management board a delay, but for filing there is no delay. Those 12 months are a hard limit.

What if you are late?

Filing late is a criminal offence: you can get a fine and the Public Prosecution Service can start legal proceedings. In addition, you become personally liable if you do not file on time and your business goes bankrupt. And banks, suppliers and business partners see it: the trade register is public. All of this is set out on the same page from KVK.

And if you are not a legal person?

If you do not need a statement, you can prepare your annual accounts yourself; the principles above are then your guide.

Then none of this applies. A sole trader or VOF has no filing obligation; see this explanation. The income tax return has its own deadlines, which are separate from the annual accounts.

Does it differ per financial year?

Yes. If you have a non-calendar financial year — for example from July to June — you count the deadlines from the end of that financial year. The numbers of months mentioned stay the same.