Payment term, collection charges, and statutory interest

If you sell products or provide services, often a payment term applies. If you deliver to companies (B2B) or governments you must comply with the legal maximum payment terms. If you deal with consumers, you can set a payment term yourself. 

Payment term for business-to-business (B2B) contracts

Payment terms for agreements between companies are laid down in the European Directive for combating late payment in business dealings.

• The legal payment term for companies is 60 days, unless you have made other arrangements and specified these in the contract.There are other rules for large companies to pay their SME clients.
• You may only set a longer payment period than 60 days if you can demonstrate that this is not harmful to either party.
• Did you not specify a payment term? Then the payment term is 30 days.

Payment term for consumers

There is no legal payment term for consumers. As an entrepreneur you can set a reasonable payment term for consumers yourself. This term may not be unreasonably long. You specify this payment term in the contract or your general conditions.

Payment term for large companies

Large companies must pay the invoice to SMEs and self-employed professionals (zzp’ers) within 30 days. If you have less than 250 employees, your annual turnover is at most €50 million, and your balance sheet does not exceed €43 million your company is considered an SME.

Contracts between companies and governments

Governments must pay the invoice within 30 days of receiving it. This period can only be extended to 60 days in extraordinary circumstances. The central government in the Netherlands uses the General Government Terms and Conditions.

When your customer fails to pay

Did you deliver goods or services and has your customer not paid your invoice in time or not at all? You have the right to:

• charge a standard fee for collection costs of €40
• charge a reasonable compensation for expenses incurred, such as legal fees or collection costs
• charge statutory interest, calculated from the date the payment term expires

Send a payment reminder

If your customer did not pay, you can send them a payment reminder (warning). Is you customer a consumer? You must first send a reminder without charging any reminder fees. If your customer is a company, you are not obliged to do so. You can then follow the collection procedure you outlined in your general terms and conditions. Check the Step-by-step plan: customer does not pay invoice for more information on payment reminders.

Collection Costs

Collection costs are the costs you incur as a creditor in order to collect a money claim, if your debtor does not pay this claim of his own accord. The amount of the fee is a percentage of the bill. The larger the claim is, the lower the percentage. The minimum amount is €40, and the maximum €6,775. If your debtor is a company (B2B), you can deviate from this in an agreement. Statutory regulations will apply if there is no agreement.

Statutory interest

Statutory interest is the interest that a creditor can charge customers for late payment. You have to inform your customer that you will charge statutory interest when the payment date expires. You can do so for example on your invoice or in the payment reminder. 

The interest rate for commercial transactions applies to deliveries to companies and to the government. In case of deliveries to consumers, the statutory interest rate for non-commercial transactions applies. The Dutch central bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, DNB) publishes several interest rates, among others the current statutory interest rates.