Supplementary corona measures

The Dutch Cabinet has earmarked an additional 3.7 billion euros to top up the various economic support packages.

NOW (Employment Bridging Emergency Fund) scheme

Having commenced on the first of October 2020, the third tier of the NOW scheme is scheduled to end on the 30th of June 2021. Although the original plan was to ratchet down the maximum support from one calendar quarter to the next, the Cabinet has since announced that the NOW support to be dispensed during Q1 2021 will be identical to that in Q4 2020.

TVL (Fixed Cost Compensation) scheme

The TVL scheme enables businesses that have suffered major COVID‑19 related sales losses to be compensated for up to 70 percent of their fixed costs compared with 50 percent originally, the latter percentage having been retroactively increased from the first of October 2020 onwards. The expansion of the original TVL target audience to include parties such as the suppliers of affected sectors will continue to apply throughout Q1 2021. The supplementary support is mainly aimed at helping businesses in the hospitality, travel and event industries survive.

“Voucher bank”

Businesses in the travel industry are to be helped in their refunding of customers whose holiday bookings have had to be cancelled this year. Having originally used vouchers as a temporary solution to the problem, now that a year has passed the travel agents are having to reimburse their duped customers in real money. This has prompted the Dutch government to work on a special credit facility for affected travel agencies to resort to. The launch of this “voucher bank” is imminent.

TONK (Temporary Support towards Necessary Costs) scheme

Individuals who in spite of the existing support schemes are threatened to “go under” will shortly be able to report to the municipal authorities for assistance in paying the rent or keeping up their mortgage payments. Examples of the TONK target group include sole traders whose order book has significantly thinned out, and employees who have been missing out on income for quarantine-related reasons.

Tax measures

The Cabinet has extended the term of automatically granted deferred payment of taxes for entrepreneurs to the first of April 2021, as the date until which a deferral decision having already been granted by the tax authorities is likewise to be extended upon the relevant tax payer’s request.

Two new tax measures are moreover being introduced, the first of which provides for a zero turnover tax rate to apply until the first of April 2021 to both COVID‑19 vaccines and COVID‑19 test kits, whereas the second measure sees to the TVL top-up for inventory and modification related costs incurred by businesses in the hospitality industry being exempted from income and corporation tax.

Dutch version: Aanvullende coronamaatregelen