Home Foreign businesses Call-off stock in the Netherlands
Call-off stock in the Netherlands
An EU supplier that keeps stock in the Netherlands for one known Dutch customer can often do without a Dutch VAT number. The call-off stock rules make that possible, but only if every condition is met.
We check your arrangement, and register if needed
If the call-off rules do not apply, the Dutch registration is everything included.
How it works
Normally, moving your own goods from another EU country to the Netherlands is a transfer that you report in a Dutch VAT return. Under the call-off stock rules (Article 3b of the Dutch VAT Act) that transfer is ignored. Only when the customer takes goods from the stock do you make an intra-EU supply from your own country, and the customer reports the acquisition in the Netherlands.
The conditions
- The goods go to the Netherlands for a customer who will take them later, under an agreement that exists before the goods are moved
- The customer is a business with a Dutch VAT number, and you know its identity and VAT number before the transfer
- Your company is not established and has no fixed establishment in the Netherlands
- You report the transfer in your EC Sales List, and you and the customer each keep a call-off stock register
- The customer takes the goods within 12 months after arrival
The rules are not optional: if the conditions are met, they apply.
When it goes wrong
- Goods not taken within 12 months: the transfer counts as made the day after, and you register in the Netherlands
- Goods sold to another customer, moved to another country, or lost or stolen: from that moment you register in the Netherlands
- Goods sent back to your own country within 12 months: no transfer, as long as it is recorded in the register
- A new customer can replace the original one, if the replacement is agreed in time and is recorded
Stock in a Dutch warehouse without one known customer, such as fulfilment stock, does not qualify: you then need a Dutch VAT number.
Example
A manufacturer in Belgium supplies parts to a factory in Eindhoven under a call-off agreement. It moves parts worth € 50,000 to the factory's warehouse; in March the factory takes parts worth € 20,000.
- The transfer: no Dutch VAT number needed for the Belgian supplier; it records the transfer in its register and its Belgian EC Sales List
- March: the supplier invoices € 20,000 as an intra-EU supply from Belgium at 0%; the factory reports the acquisition and € 4,200 Dutch VAT, and deducts it
- Parts still in the warehouse after 12 months: the supplier registers in the Netherlands for those parts
This is a worked example, not a client case.
From 1 July 2028: the transfer scheme takes over
The call-off stock rules can no longer be used for goods transported after 1 July 2028; arrangements already running end by 1 July 2029 at the latest. They are replaced by the transfer scheme in the OSS: an EU supplier reports transfers of its own goods to the Netherlands every month in its own country, without registering here. Its later sale to the Dutch business customer is reverse-charged to the customer. See what changes with ViDA.
What we do
We check your agreement and goods flows against the conditions. If the call-off rules do not apply, or stop applying, we register your company for Dutch VAT (€ 275, everything included) and file the returns (€ 100 per month for all your Dutch VAT returns, € 150 with the OSS return).
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a Dutch VAT number for consignment stock in the Netherlands?
Not if the call-off stock conditions are met: one known Dutch business customer with a Dutch VAT number, a prior agreement, registers on both sides and a 12-month limit. Otherwise, yes.
What happens after 12 months?
Goods that the customer has not taken are treated as transferred to the Netherlands on the day after the 12 months, and the supplier must register here.
Does this work for Amazon or fulfilment stock?
No. That stock is not held for one known customer, so moving it to the Netherlands is a transfer that requires a Dutch VAT number.
Will call-off stock still exist after 2028?
No. It cannot be used for goods transported after 1 July 2028, and running arrangements end by 1 July 2029. The transfer scheme in the OSS takes its place.
Keeping stock at a Dutch customer? Tell us how the arrangement works.
Tell us briefly what is going on. Within one working day you hear what we can do for you and what it costs, before we start.
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