Prinsjesdag 2024 - Budget Day in the Netherlands

The third Tuesday in September is traditionally known as Prinsjesdag in the Netherlands. On Prinsjesdag, or Budget Day as it is known in many countries, King Willem-Alexander gives the Speech from the Throne. This speech sums up the state of the nation, and outlines the government's plans for the coming year. After the Speech, the Minister of Finance presents the chair of the House of Representatives with the National Budget (Rijksbegroting) and the Budget Memorandum (Miljoenennota). These documents describe how the government is going to execute its plans, and how much budget is allotted to each plan.

Why Prinsjesdag matters to businesses

Preparation is essential when doing business. The plans announced on Prinsjesdag usually come into effect on 1 January. So businesses have just over 3 months to consider the upcoming changes and adjust their plans and forecasts. Changing tax benefits, incentives, excise duties, and other announcements have a varied impact. For example, a plumber may decide next year is the time to buy an electric van. An IT business with 50 employees might decide to launch a new public transport policy for staff. While a national supermarket chain may be looking at changes to the minimum wage to calculate the impact on its salary costs. The sooner you know what to expect for your business, the sooner you can act.

What can you expect from Business.gov.nl?

The Dutch and English teams from Business.gov.nl and Ondernemersplein read through the Prinsjesdag documents published by the Dutch ministries. Our goal is to find all of the proposed legislative changes that affect businesses. We write and publish the details of these changes as amendments. Each amendment can also be found on this overview page as soon as it is ready. Once Prinsjesdag begins, keep refreshing to find the latest updates.

Every Prinsjesdag is different. The first information may be live on our websites by the end of Tuesday afternoon. We will still be busy publishing amendments through Tuesday evening and all of Wednesday. And in years where there are a lot of announcements related to businesses, we may also publish more information on Thursday. Through all of this, our social media team will be busy sharing news, links, and videos on LinkedIn and Instagram.

More information about Budget Day

Ondernemersplein and Business.gov.nl bring you all the factual updates on new laws and amendments announced on Prinsjesdag. To read more on how the proposed changes will affect businesses, visit the KVK Prinsjesdag page, follow them on social media, or sign up for one of their newsletters.

More information about the tradition of Prinsjesdag is available on Government.nl. And finally, the official Prinsjesdag documents are published on Rijksoverheid.nl. These are all in Dutch.