The Dutch government introduced several measures to alleviate the Corona crisis’ consequences as much as possible for entrepreneurs and freelancers. Below you will find a short recap of all the measures.
[update 3 July 2020]
Temporary financial support
The Dutch government has financial compensation measures in place for sole proprietors, start-ups, small business owners and large companies. The second set of measures were announced by the government on May 20th. You can find an overview of all the measures here.
To find out for which schemes you qualify, you can use the Regelingencheck from the Chamber of Commerce or the Coronacalculator from VNO-CNW/MKB.
If you have a residence permit as an entrepreneur, you can apply for temporary financial support (TOZO) without jeopardizing your legal residence. If you are a national of the European Union or if you have any other non-permanent residence permit, an application for temporary financial support could jeopardize your legal residence, but you are protected by European legislation and case law. Read more in our news article here.
Credits and guarantees
The financial compensation measures include multiple credits and guarantees for small business owners, self-employed professionals and other entrepreneurs.
The SME credit guarantee scheme (BMKB) has been extended. The Ministry of Economic Affairs will act as guarantor for up to 75%. These measures enable you to borrow more than is normally possible. This may be used as a bridge loan or to increase the amount on your current account. The requirements are as following:
- The business is established in the Netherlands, Bonaire, Saba or St. Eustatius.
- The business has up to 250 FTE employees.
- The business has an annual revenue of up to €50 million or has a balance sheet total of up to €43 million.
- The company has been established for over 3 years
In addition, small companies can apply for a bridging loan facility called Small Credits for Corona guarantee measure (Klein Krediet Corona). The loan if for micro, small or medium sized business owners with a turnover of € 50.000 or more that where sufficiently profitable before the corona crisis and registered in the Chamber of Commerce Register before 1 January 2019. KKC is a loan of € 10.000 up to € 50.000.
You apply for a loan from a credit supplier affiliated with this measure. Rabobank, ABN AMRO, ING, Volksbank and Triodos are participating in this credit guarantee scheme. BMKB financers are also accredited to provide the loan.
Entrepreneurs who have a loan from microcredit provider Qredits do not have to repay their loan for a period of 6 months, during which interests will be reduced to 2%.
According to our information, this guarantee scheme for loans will not be considered welfare*. It is rather a loan. As far as we can judge now, it would therefore not jeopardize your legal residence if you reside here as a freelancer, Union citizen or other non-permanent residency permit as the money that will be borrowed will eventually have to be paid back. You can apply for this scheme to your credit provider.
*We will update this information according to the latest developments.
For more information please contact Hermie de Voer or Thomas van Houwelingen, or call us at +31(0)20752 32 00.