So far value-added tax registration numbers issued to sole traders in the Netherlands have included the relevant entrepreneur’s citizen service number (“BSN”). The Tax and Customs Administration in compliance with the Dutch Data Protection Authority’s standards is to issue new registration numbers to all sole traders before the current year is out, thus reducing the risk of identity fraud and improving information privacy. This said, the Tax Office will continue using the existing registration numbers for its own internal purposes, in order not to disrupt internal processing. The newly issued value-added tax registration numbers will thus serve external communication purposes only. In future, the Tax and Customs Administration’s systems are to provide for fully automated conversion from the new to the old value-added tax registration number whenever an entrepreneur logs on.
Dutch version: Nieuwe btw-identificatienummers voor eenmanszaken