The coronavirus - FAQ for entrepreneurs

Most restrictions have been lifted or considerably relaxed as of 1 July. The article Rules for re-opening your business offers a timeline, a short summary of the rules for businesses, and links to the specific rules per sector. These rules were drawn up by the government together with relevant sector organisations. On 6 August, stricter rules were introduced for hospitality establishments and for cultural and recreational institutions. Read more about local and national measures announced at the 6 August press conference on the Government.nl website.

There is not enough money coming in as an effect of the corona crisis. You can apply for several emergency measures, depending on your type of business:

• The NOW scheme is set up to help businesses with a turnover loss of more than 20% to cover their employees' wage payments. NOW2 is now available.
• If you are a self-employed professional (zzp-er), you will be able to apply to your municipality for the temporary financial support measure for self-employed professionals (Tozo2) with retroactive effect from 1 June 2020.
• SMEs in a number of specific sectors qualify for the TVL scheme. Several conditions apply. Application is possible from 30 June - 30 October over the period 1 June - 1 October.
• SMEs can make use of the extended SME credit guarantee scheme, BMKB-C.
• For agricultural entrepreneurs, there is the extended Credit Guarantee scheme for Agriculture (BL-C).
• Larger businesses can make use of the Business loan guarantee scheme, GO.

• Do you worry your business won't make it? Read this article on how to prevent bankruptcy.
• Are you temporarily unable to pay your debts? Then you can file for a suspension of payment.
• If you are unable to pay your debts, you can make use of debt restructuring.
• Is your company in danger of going bankrupt? Read our articles on bankruptcy.

Entrepreneurs who are affected by the coronavirus and employ staff can apply for the Temporary Emergency Bridging Measure for Sustained Employment (NOW2,Noodfonds Overbrugging Werkgelegenheid). They can also request a postponement of payment for taxes or request a reduction in the provisional tax assessments from the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration (Belastingdienst). Or make use of the extended BMKB scheme (see the questions on BMKB-C). Self-employed professionals can apply for the extended financial benefit for self-employed professionals (Tozo2).

What is being done for entrepreneurs who have kept their business closed due to corona measures?

Entrepreneurs in a number of specific sectors who have been affected by the corona crisis can apply for TVL, Reimbursement fixed costs for SMEs. Businesses in these sectors are also eligible for the NOW scheme.

No. The application period for TOGS expired on 26 June. It was replaced by the Tegemoetkoming Vaste Lasten or TVL scheme (Reimbursement Fixed Costs for SMEs). Application for TVL is possible from 30 June - 30 October over the period 1 June - 1 October.

The Reimbursement Fixed Costs for SMEs scheme (Tegemoetkoming Vaste Lasten mkb, TVL) helps SMEs who meet the conditions to pay part of their fixed costs. It is a compensation for fixed costs like rent and maintenance, for businesses with more than 30% turnover loss due to the corona crisis, and with one of the selected SBI codes (the same ones that are eligible for TOGS). Wage costs are not compensated under this scheme. Businesses can apply to the Netherlands Enterprise Agency from 30 June - 30 October, for the period 1 June through 1 October 2020.

This compensation is for SME businesses, that have a turnover loss of more than 30% due to the corona crisis, to help them pay their fixed costs. The fixed costs mentioned are costs like rent, lease, maintenance, insurance, and subscription costs. Wage costs are not included; those are covered by the NOW scheme. The maximum reimbursement per company is €50,000 (tax-free) over the period 1 June - 1 October.

The TVL compensation scheme targets SME businesses that suffer large turnover losses due to the corona crisis, and have trouble settling their fixed costs. Only businesses with a selected SBI code can apply for the TVL scheme. The sectors that can apply are the same ones that are eligible for TOGS.

Yes, you can. The TVL compensation covers the period of 1 June through 30 September 2020, and is supplementary to TOGS, which covers the period from 15 March – 15 June 2020.

Yes, you can. The TVL scheme is an addition to the NOW scheme. However, receiving TVL does affect the amount you receive in wage compensation costs under the NOW scheme, since the TVL compensation will be counted as turnover.

To help businesses that have been affected by the coronavirus crisis, the SME credit guarantee scheme (BMKB) has been extended. This additional scheme is called BMKB-C. It came into effect on 16 March. The scheme allows companies to borrow (more) money more quickly from accredited financiers, such as banks. Entrepreneurs can use the BMKB-C for a bridge loan to meet their financial obligations, or to increase the overdraft limit (how much they are allowed to be ‘in the red’) on their current account.

The government wants to help businesses prevent liquidity problems due to the coronavirus. The BMKB-C means that the government stands as guarantor for companies that want to take out a loan, but are unable to offer their financiers (mostly banks) the financial security they want. In practice, this means that, using the BMKB-C, you can take out a bigger loan than you would be able to get based on your collateral. You can apply for the BMKB-C until 1 April 2021.

You cannot apply for the BMKB-C scheme yourself. You can ask an accredited financier, usually the bank, to make use of the scheme. Consult the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) website for a list of the accredited financing parties (in Dutch). Normally, the bank would apply to the Netherlands Enterprise Agency for the scheme, but to speed up the procedure, the government and the banks have agreed to let the banks do the evaluation of applications themselves. The banks can use the BMKB-C scheme without consulting RVO.

These are the terms:

• The government guarantees 75% of the loan. In other words: 75% of a bridge loan can be financed using the BMKB-C scheme.
• The entrepreneur’s personal collateral has been lowered from 25% to 10%.
• The part of the loan the bank is at risk for can be either a new loan, a new current account credit (overdraft), or an increase of the existing current account credit (so, a higher overdraft limit).
• The maximum credit is €1.5 Million.
• The maximum duration of the BMKB-C scheme is 8 quarters.
• The bank determines the manner of repayment. The options are: linear (the same amount each time, plus interest on the outstanding balance), possibly with a redemption-free period; all at once, at the end of the period.
• The test to ascertain that the business lacks enough security to take out a regular loan does not apply to the BMKB-C scheme.

Agreements must be fulfilled, that is the basis of our legal system. An appeal to force majeure is not often approved. You should not count on being able to make such an appeal successfully.

Whether or not force majeure is in play depends on the contract you have drawn up. Commercial contracts often feature a force majeure clause. This clause states under which circumstances force majeure applies, and what the consequences are if these circumstances occur. It usually features matters like government measures, strikes, sudden blockages to the infrastructure, or shortages in transport. So, you may be able to claim force majeure based on the government measures taken to stop the spreading of the coronavirus. It is also possible to include illness, epidemics or quarantine in your contract. The district court decides, if you have a dispute.

Does you agreement not contain a force majeure clause? Then check the applicable law. This may be either Dutch law, or the law in your customer’s country. Not being able to deliver is described in the law as ‘a shortcoming in the fulfilment of a contract’ in articles 74 and onwards of Book 6 of the Civil Code (Burgerlijk Wetboek, in Dutch). Do you fail to meet your contractual obligations? Then you may ultimately have to pay damages.

Pandemic outbreaks, such as the coronavirus, are expected to be excluded from the terms and conditions of insurance policies.

For cancelled travel plans, consult your travel organisation. Consult your insurance company for events and conferences.

Income

It depends on the type of damage. If you miss out on income due to the coronavirus, that is a business damage, or trading loss. However, trading loss insurance only covers material damage, and the Insurers Association (Verbond van Verzekeraars) has announced (in Dutch) that income losses due to corona do not fall into that category.

Personnel

When it comes to personnel, it is a different story. If your employees have to stay at home sick, you must continue to pay their wages. If you have taken out sick pay insurance, this will cover the obligation to continue wage payments. Is your employee unable to work, due to illness? Then the sick pay insurance will pay out, no matter what the illness. But if your employee has to remain in quarantine, or is unable to leave an area as a precautionary measure, the insurance company will not pay out.

Personal

What about you? If you decide not to work, because you don’t want to catch the virus, or if you are in quarantine, or unable to leave an area as a precautionary measure, your disability insurance will not cover it. Disability insurance only covers income loss due to illness or a (physical) inability to work, and that is not the case in the example described above. If you contract the coronavirus and become ill, the disability insurance will pay.

No, this is part of the business risk. You can make use of the schemes mentioned before: unemployment benefit for short-time working, SME credit guarantee scheme, and tax payment extension.

Rijksoverheid.nl has prepared an FAQ about the coronavirus for employees, which is available in several languages.

The Temporary Emergency Bridging Measure for Sustained Employment, or NOW, allows you to continue to pay your staff if your business suffers a turnover loss of over 20%. You can apply to the Employee Insurance Agency (UWV) for a maximum of 90% of your payroll obligations, and in that way you can continue to pay your employees their full wages. There are conditions and terms to be met, which you can read about in the regulation.

The NOW scheme applies to all your employees, whether they have a permanent contract, a temporary one, a zero-hours or an on-call contract. Read what the conditions are in the regulation.

The NOW scheme applies to all employees who are under contract at your business. Permanent staff, fixed-term employees, on-call workers, and workers with a zero-hours contract are all entitled to payment of their wages and you can apply for compensation of the payroll sum to the Employee Insurance Agency. Temporary agency workers (uitzendkrachten) are under contract with the temp agency. The temp agency can apply for NOW for these workers. Payroll workers are paid by the payrolling company, so the payrolling company can apply for NOW for these workers.

You can apply for the NOW scheme with retroactive effect from 1 June 2020, and you will be able to apply for an advance of up to 80% of the requested sum from the Employee Insurance Agency, so you don't have to wait for the application to be processed and approved. Check the turnover loss calculation aid (in Dutch) to see if you qualify for the NOW scheme.

Yes. Concerns that have operating companies that suffer more than 20% turnover loss can claim NOW for the employees of that operating company. There are conditions and terms, for instance, you are not allowed to pay dividend, buy your own shares or award bonuses over 2020. Nor can you claim NOW if one of your operating companies is an intra-group secondment company (personeels-bv). Read all conditions in the NOW article.

The Temporary Emergency Bridging Measure for Sustained Employment (NOW,Noodfonds Overbrugging Werkgelegenheid) has come into force due to an unprecedented number of applications for wtv permits. The wtv scheme is not tailored to the profound effects of the coronavirus outbreak on Dutch companies and organisations. That is why wtv has been canceled. The government wants to support more employers and do this more quickly.

If you already applied for the unemployment benefit for a short-time working permit, your application will automatically be considered as an application for the NOW.

Due to the exceptional circumstances, the government has decided not to impose fines on companies if their knowledge workers no longer earn the minimum required salary due to shorter working times under the wtv scheme. Read the IND FAQ for more information.

If your staff cannot come to work as a consequence of mandatory quarantine, travel restrictions or other coronavirus-inspired blockages, you will most likely have to continue paying them. However, which exact rules apply depends on the specific circumstances and the labour laws per country.

In case you have your employees work from home, the Dutch Working Conditions Act (Arbeidsomstandighedenwet) applies. It is wise to communicate the agreements with your employees. Think of agreements about breaks, maintenance of computers and equipment of machines. You should also inform them of the risks they run, such as the risk of RSI or work-related stress. It is also advisable to check whether the workplace meets the working conditions requirements. You can find out by having your employee fill in a checklist. Does the workplace fail to meet the requirements? Then you have to facilitate a better workplace. Also read the article Employer during the corona crisis: what you can and must do.

Ask your employees to work from home as much as possible. Only employees who work in so-called crucial professions or vital processes (in Dutch), and do work that cannot be done from home, have to come to work. Special school and childcare support is being arranged for these professionals.

Contact the RIVM directly if you have doubts about what to do in specific situations.

See our article Employer during the corona crisis: what you can and must do.

Income

It depends on the type of damage. If you miss out on income due to the coronavirus, that is a business damage, or trading loss. However, trading loss insurance only covers material damage, and the Insurers Association (Verbond van Verzekeraars) has announced (in Dutch) that income losses due to corona do not fall into that category.

Personnel

When it comes to personnel, it is a different story. If your employees have to stay at home sick, you must continue to pay their wages. If you have taken out sick pay insurance, this will cover the obligation to continue wage payments. Is your employee unable to work, due to illness? Then the sick pay insurance will pay out, no matter what the illness. But if your employee has to remain in quarantine, or is unable to leave an area as a precautionary measure, the insurance company will not pay out.

Personal

What about you? If you decide not to work, because you don’t want to catch the virus, or if you are in quarantine, or unable to leave an area as a precautionary measure, your disability insurance will not cover it. Disability insurance only covers income loss due to illness or a (physical) inability to work, and that is not the case in the example described above. If you contract the coronavirus and become ill, the disability insurance will pay.

If you are in danger of losing your income, you can apply to your municipality for a temporary extra benefit under the extended financial support for self-employed professionals scheme (Tozo). The terms for application have been relaxed, to speed up the process. Also, the interest rate for loans has been decreased.

Self-employed professionals can also make use of the SME credit guarantee scheme, if their legal business structure is sole proprietor, general partnership (vof) or private limited company (bv).

Here are some measures you can take yourself when you find your company is in stormy weather:

• Look for changes you could make to your business processes. Perhaps you could get deliveries from different suppliers, from other countries, or you could offer your services in a different region.
• Do you have outstanding invoices? See if you can get these paid. Or you could try factoring, a type of credit where you ‘sell’ your outstanding invoices to a third party, and quickly get your money.
• Discuss the possibility of a longer than usual payment term with your suppliers and other parties you owe money.
• Look into external financing. Always ask your bank first (for instance a current account) before considering other financing options (also see: SME credit guarantee scheme).

Take care! Flash credits may seem a quick and easy way to get money, but they come at a price – usually a high one. Is your company in debt? Read this article to see what you can do about it.

Yes. Self-employed professionals (zzp-ers) can make use of the BMKB-C if their legal business entity is a sole trader/proprietor, a general partnership (vof) or a private limited company (bv). Generally speaking however, zzp-ers have lower financing needs, and so do not often make use of this scheme.

Tozo is a temporary scheme to help out entrepreneurs and self-employed professionals who have a viable business but are going through a rough patch. The provision is based on the financial support for self-employed professionals scheme (Bbz), but several requirements are relaxed. Self-employed professionals can apply for support in the municipality where they live, in the shape of additional livelihood support and/or a business capital loan. The Tozo scheme has been extended for the months July through September.

If your company is in the Netherlands, but you live abroad (in the EER or Switzerland), you can apply to the municipality of Maastricht for a business loan with retroactive effect from 1 March. You cannot apply for extra support for the cost of living; for that, turn to the social services in the country where you live.

Self-employed professionals who want to make use of the scheme can apply at the municipality where they live. So, for instance, if you live in Aalsmeer but have your business in Amsterdam, you apply for the Tozo scheme in Aalsmeer. Go to the website of your municipality, or call to find out how to apply where you live. Although the application process will be mostly the same everywhere, it is up to your municipality to provide details on where to send the application and how.

TechLeap.nl offers the COVID-19 Startup Guide, a toolkit that contains resources, contact and information points, as well as analyses of the corona crisis. It also hosts a series of sessions on the effects of the coronavirus, and how startups can deal with these effects. These sessions take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You can sign up for these sessions. The Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship also broadcast a webinar on 2 April. You can watch it here.

The Netherlands Point of Entry advises all Netherlands Startup Visa holders to contact the RVO Startup Visa team directly.

The Regional Development Companies (ROMs) have been allotted a budget to grant startups and scale-ups a so-called Corona Bridging Loan (Corona Overbruggings Lening, COL). If you want to apply for a loan, fill out the form on the Techleap.nl website. An English translation (pdf) is available.

SMEs with relatively small financial needs may be eligible for a bridging loan of up to €50,000 under the Small Corona Credit Guarantee Scheme (Klein Krediet Corona Garantieregeling or KKC).

The government is taking several measures to protect international trade. The export credit insurance now also covers short-term projects that have been active for less than 2 years. In addition, options for domestic coverage are extended, national policies will become more flexible and coverage will be available for more countries. Procedures are also extended and accelerated, and a higher percentage of working capital is covered. For more information, visit Rijksoverheid.nl (in Dutch).

For cancelled travel plans, consult your travel organisation. Consult your insurance company for events and congresses.

Were you planning to go abroad for a conference, a business meeting or a trade show? Check if your destination is in a restricted area with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs travel advice (in Dutch). You can also find information for travellers on the Rijksoverheid.nl website (in Dutch).

There are travel restrictions in place for travel into the Netherlands. If your business partner is from the EU, Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland, or Switzerland, they can still travel to the Netherlands. Non-essential travel of persons from third countries to the Netherlands is restricted, except for a small number of countries (read which ones here - in Dutch). Read the article on The Netherlands and you for full details on who is and who is not allowed to travel into the Netherlands.

You can find up-to-date information on trade missions (in Dutch) organised by the government on the website of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency RVO. If you registered for a mission, and it has been cancelled or postponed, you will be informed personally. Do you want to know if a mission you are interested in will take place? Then contact the person listed as the contact person for that specific mission on the RVO website.

If your staff cannot come to work as a consequence of mandatory quarantine, travel restrictions or other coronavirus-inspired blockages, you will most likely have to continue paying them. However, which exact rules apply depends on the specific circumstances and the labour laws per country.

It seems unlikely that Customs procedures for goods will be more stringent, since the virus does not spread that way. Do you run into problems at Customs? FME, the Dutch technology sector organisation, has opened a notification and information portal for entrepreneurs who have to deal with the negative impact of the coronavirus.

The Immigration and Naturalisation Service IND has prepared an FAQ for questions concerning corona and permits and visa.

You can only claim compensation measures like NOW for the turnover loss you incur on payments made directly to you, that is, the part of your invoices sent to patients that is not covered by their healthcare insurance provider. For the turnover loss on payments you would normally receive from the health insurance companies, a special continuity scheme is being prepared by the healthcare insurance companies. This came into effect on 15 May, see the news item on the ZN website (in Dutch).

This measure came into effect on 15 May. Zorgverzekeraars Nederland, the healthcare insurance companies umbrella organisation, explains how to apply in this news item (in Dutch) on their website.

• You can apply for a payment extension for income tax, corporate tax, payroll tax, and turnover tax (VAT). The Dutch Tax Administration will put on hold any measures in place to collect payment immediately upon reception of your request.
• You will not have to pay any fines for late payment. Also, it is not necessary to send in any proof straightaway. You will have more time for this.
• The normal collection interest rate for paying after the payment term has passed will be decreased from 4% to nearly 0% temporarily. This applies to all tax debts. The tax interest rate will also temporarily be set to the lowest possible percentage for all entrepreneurs.

The tax measures are in place until October. Read more about the Dutch Tax Administration measures to help entrepreneurs.

Reduction of provisionary assessment

Do you expect lower profits due to the coronavirus, and are you currently paying a provisionary assessment for income tax or corporate income tax? Then you can change your provisionary assessment. If you want to change your income tax provisionary assessment, go to the online portal for individuals: MijnBelastingdienst (in Dutch); to change a corporate tax provisionary assessment go to the business portal: MijnBelastingdienst Zakelijk (in Dutch).