The Dutch gov­ern­ment has decided to fur­ther tight­en the coronavir­us meas­ures, includ­ing extend­ing the cur­rent lock­down and intro­du­cing a curfew.  This way, the gov­ern­ment wishes to pre­vent the fur­ther spread of the coronavir­us, while the vac­cin­a­tion pro­cess is now in full swing.

Des­pite the many adjust­ments and cre­at­ive solu­tions from entre­pren­eurs, they are often, dir­ectly or indir­ectly, deeply affected by these coronavir­us meas­ures.  In order to con­tinu­ously sup­port entre­pren­eurs in these dif­fi­cult times, the gov­ern­ment is fur­ther expand­ing the sup­port and recov­ery pack­age in the first and second quar­ters of 2021.  The gov­ern­ment indic­ates that 7.6 bil­lion euros will be alloc­ated for this expan­sion of the sup­port and recov­ery pack­age.

 

TVL

The gov­ern­ment has decided to expand the Fixed Cost Allow­ance (TVL) for the first and second quar­ters of 2021. On the one hand, com­pan­ies will be entitled to more TVL sup­port and on the oth­er hand, more com­pan­ies will have access to TVL sup­port. Among oth­ers, the fol­low­ing sup­port meas­ures will be imple­men­ted:

• increase of TVL sub­sidy rates;
• open­ing up the TVL for (medi­um) large enter­prises;
• increase of the max­im­um TVL sub­sidy;
• increase of the min­im­um TVL sub­sidy; and
• exten­ded and increased stock allow­ance for closed retail­ers.

 

Increase of TVL sub­sidy rates

Before­hand, the sub­sidy rate increased from 50% in the case of 30% loss of turnover to 70% in the case of 100% loss of turnover.  The sub­sidy rates will now be increased to 85% for a loss of turnover of 30% or more.

 

Open­ing up the TVL for (medi­um) large enter­prises

The TVL is now also avail­able for medi­um and large enter­prises.  The TVL will now also be open to non-SMEs.  The lim­it of a max­im­um of 250 employ­ees will there­fore be aban­doned.

 

Increase of the max­im­um TVL sub­sidy

Giv­en the increase in sub­sidy rates and the open­ing up of the TVL to non-SMEs, the max­im­um quarterly TVL sub­sidy amount will be increased from EUR 90,000 to EUR 330,000 start­ing in the first quarter of 2021.  For non-SMEs, the max­im­um TVL sub­sidy amount is set at 400,000 euros. [1]

 

Increase of the min­im­um TVL sub­sidy

In order to bet­ter sup­port small entre­pren­eurs, who are often hit par­tic­u­larly hard by the cur­rent lock­down, the min­im­um TVL sub­sidy amount goes up from 750 euros to 1,500 euros. [2]

 

Extend and increase stock allow­ance for closed retail­ers

The stock allow­ance for closed retail­ers will be exten­ded to the first quarter of 2021 and will also be increased.  The stock allow­ance con­sists of a 21% mark-up on the fixed charge per­cent­age in the TVL (pre­vi­ously this mark-up was only 5.6%).  The stock allow­ance has its own max­im­um sub­sidy amount of 200,000 euros and is excluded from the max­im­um sub­sidy amount men­tioned above.

 

Policy

The pre­vi­ously pro­posed phas­ing out approach of the sup­port and recov­ery meas­ures will be aban­doned by the gov­ern­ment for the second quarter of 2021.  Instead of phas­ing out, the sup­port and recov­ery meas­ures from the first quarter will be largely car­ried over to the second quarter.  The gen­er­ic expan­sion of the TVL will there­fore also apply in the second quarter of 2021.

 

For the ele­ments in the sup­port and recov­ery pack­age that are not affected by the loss of turnover per­cent­age, the neces­sary adjust­ments will be assessed on a quarterly basis.  This also applies to the increased stock allow­ance for closed retail­ers, which, in prin­ciple, applies only to the first quarter of 2021.

 

Con­clu­sion

Togeth­er with the oth­er meas­ures in the sup­port and recov­ery pack­age, such as the increase in the NOW sub­sidy rate to 85%, the exten­sion of the peri­od dur­ing which entre­pren­eurs can apply for a tax defer­ral or an exten­sion of the defer­ral, and oth­er tax meas­ures, the gov­ern­ment is attempt­ing to con­tin­ue to sup­port entre­pren­eurs and accel­er­ate eco­nom­ic recov­ery.  We recom­mend check­ing wheth­er your com­pany qual­i­fies for the expan­ded TVL and/or one of the many oth­er sup­port meas­ures.  We will, of course, be happy to dis­cuss this with you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] Medi­um-sized agri­cul­tur­al and hor­ti­cul­tur­al busi­nesses are not eli­gible for the increase in the max­im­um sub­sidy amount due to European reg­u­la­tions in this regard.  The gov­ern­ment is work­ing on an altern­at­ive arrange­ment for this group.

[2] Small busi­ness own­ers some­times do not qual­i­fy for the TVL because their fixed costs are too low (below €3,000 per quarter).  The gov­ern­ment is explor­ing wheth­er this threshold of €3,000 per quarter can be lowered.