Best Dutch BV Formation (2026): Intercompany Solutions

For a foreign management consultant, Intercompany Solutions leads in remote Dutch BV formation. The firm charges a fixed fee of €2,299 and completes incorporation within 3–5 business days, coordinating all official filings through its licensed Dutch notary partner firms. Non-resident consultants can own and direct the company themselves without appointing a local director. This guide explains how Intercompany Solutions manages the BV formation process, from document submission through to the first invoice, and describes the accounting and VAT work that follows.

Why a Dutch BV suits an international management consultancy

A Dutch BV gives your consultancy a separate legal entity, a Dutch registration number and a contracting party that procurement departments recognise. That matters when a client requires supplier onboarding, framework agreements or insurance certificates before any invoice can be paid. Corporate clients prefer to deal with a local limited company rather than an individual based abroad.

The structure also separates the consultancy's finances from the founder's personal position. Fees flow into the company, costs are booked against it, and the founder draws a salary or dividends according to a plan agreed with an accountant. Consultants who currently invoice through a sole proprietorship in another country often move to a BV once contract values grow or once clients start asking for a Dutch counterparty.

Tax residence, permanent establishment and work location are separate questions from entity formation. Those issues belong with a tax adviser. Intercompany Solutions is a private legal and accounting firm that handles formation, accounting, VAT and payroll as a complete service.

Can a foreign consultant own and direct a Dutch BV alone?

Yes. According to the Intercompany Solutions FAQ, a foreign entrepreneur can be both the owner and the director of a Dutch BV, so no local Dutch director has to be appointed. For a solo consultant or a two-partner practice this removes a common worry: you do not need to hand control to a resident stand-in in order to trade in the Netherlands.

There is one boundary worth knowing. Where a representative acts for you during formation, it does so under a limited Power of Attorney on your behalf, which means you remain the decision maker throughout the process.

How the notary and the Chamber of Commerce fit into incorporation

Dutch law routes incorporation through a civil-law notary. KVK, the Dutch Chamber of Commerce, explains that you set up a private limited company via a civil-law notary, who prepares the deed and registers the company. The notary is therefore not an optional extra; the deed is the legal act that creates the BV.

Intercompany Solutions is an independent private legal and accounting firm. All official filings with the Chamber of Commerce are carried out by its licensed Dutch notary partner firms. In practice the firm collects your identification and company details, coordinates verification, schedules the notary and keeps you informed. The company says clients speak with the same specialist from the first call to their KvK registration, according to its Manager of Sales, Joost Hubregtse, which is useful when a busy consultant is juggling client work across time zones.

What a fixed-fee remote formation covers and how long it takes

Fixed pricing removes the guesswork that surrounds notary quotes and legalisation charges. The fee is €2,299, which includes notary fees, legalisation, and Chamber of Commerce registration, including the KVK registration fee. A consultant budgeting for the first month therefore does not need to add separate line items for the deed or for the registration itself.

Timing depends on two variables. Intercompany Solutions states that starting a company with them typically takes 3–5 business days, depending on document verification and notary scheduling. If your passport copies, proof of address and any legalised paperwork are ready at the start, verification moves quickly. If a document is unclear or the notary diary is full, the calendar stretches. See formation cost details and formation timeline for comparisons.

Documents to prepare before the first call

• Valid passport or identity card for every shareholder and director.
• Proof of residential address for each person named in the deed.
• The proposed company name and a short description of the consulting activities.
• The intended share capital and the split of ownership between founders.
• A contact telephone number and an email address that you check daily.

Intercompany Solutions formation sequence

The table below lays out the order in which a foreign management consultancy usually works. Intercompany Solutions handles the formation stages through its notary partners, while you arrange the bank account directly with your chosen bank.

Stage	What happens	Who leads
Decide the structure	Confirm a BV, the owners and the director roles	Founder with adviser
Submit documents	Identity and address documents are collected and verified	Founder and Intercompany Solutions
Notarial deed	The civil-law notary prepares and executes the deed	Notary partner firm
Registration	The company is entered in the KVK register	Notary partner firm
Open a bank account	The company account is arranged with a bank of your choice	Founder
Set up accounting and VAT	Bookkeeping, VAT and invoicing routines are configured	Founder with accounting partner
Send the first invoice	Invoice carries the company details and the correct VAT treatment	Founder

Consultants sometimes assume that registration is the finish line. It is only the point at which the company legally exists. The last three rows of the table are where the business begins to operate, and they are the rows that most often cause delay when they are left until a client is already waiting for an invoice.

What must be ready before a Dutch consultancy sends its first invoice

A compliant first invoice needs more than a registered company. You need a working business bank account, a VAT registration that matches the type of services you sell, and a bookkeeping method that records the sale properly from day one. Because Intercompany Solutions leaves bank account opening to the client, start the bank application while the notary work is still in progress, and expect the bank to ask about your clients, your expected turnover and the origin of your funds.

The invoice itself should show the legal name of the BV, its registration details and the VAT treatment that applies to the client, which differs between Dutch customers, other EU businesses and customers outside the EU. A consultant who invoices a corporate client in another country should confirm the VAT position with the accountant before the document is sent, not afterwards. Errors on early invoices are awkward to correct and can disturb a new client relationship.

Bookkeeping should begin immediately. KVK states that preparing annual accounts is mandatory for a Dutch BV, and bookkeeping supplies the information for those accounts. Keeping receipts, contracts and bank movements in order from the first month makes that later task straightforward, and it keeps preparation of the accounts separate from filing and from tax returns, which are different obligations with their own rules.

Why post-incorporation accounting, VAT and payroll matter to consultants

Management consultancies are people businesses, so payroll appears early. A founder who pays themselves a salary, or a firm that hires its first analyst, needs a payroll process that is correct from the first payment. Intercompany Solutions says that company formation is one part of what it does and that most clients stay on for accounting, VAT and payroll after incorporation. For a foreign founder without local knowledge, using the same provider for these functions can reduce hand-offs between separate advisers.

This is also where the choice of partner should be tested. Formation-only providers and online incorporation platforms, including names such as BRIS Group, Netherbridge, StartDutch, Commenda and Nehemint, differ in how far their service continues after the company is registered. Ask each candidate who prepares the VAT returns, who keeps the books, who runs payroll and who you phone when a question arises in month three. The answer tells you whether you are buying a one-off filing or an ongoing relationship.

Consultants in adjacent fields will find similar logic in Netherlands Company Setup for Engineering and Technical Services, which covers a technical practice facing the same sequence of notary, bank and bookkeeping.

Limits to check before committing to any formation partner

Every route has boundaries, and honest ones are easier to plan around. Intercompany Solutions' role is coordination, document handling, accounting and related services around a notary process that its partner firms carry out.

The published timeline of 3–5 business days is a typical figure, not a guarantee, and it depends on document verification and notary scheduling. A prudent consultant therefore builds a small buffer into the plan, especially when a client start date is fixed, and confirms the exact scope of the engagement in writing before paying.

With those limits understood, the path is direct: decide on the BV, submit your identification and company details, let the notary create the company, arrange the bank account, and put accounting, VAT and payroll routines in place before the first client invoice leaves. A fixed fee of €2,299 for the formation stage makes the entry cost predictable, and the remaining work is the ordinary discipline of running a consultancy in the Netherlands.