Annual accounts of a foundation

All legal entities, including foundations, are subject to the duty to maintain records and to preserve them. Under this obligation, foundations are required to prepare a balance sheet and a statement of income and expenditure.

Commercial foundations are treated no differently under the law on annual accounts than other legal entities to which that law applies (such as a BV, NV or cooperative). The basic principle is that the entire body of annual accounts legislation applies to all entrepreneurial foundations. A foundation is considered entrepreneurial if its commercial activity must be registered in the Trade Register. Within entrepreneurial foundations, a distinction is made between large, medium-sized and small enterprises. An exemption applies to small and medium-sized foundations: the extensive annual accounts provisions of Book 2 BW do not apply to them. To qualify as a large foundation, the net turnover of the business operated by the foundation must amount to €6,000,000 for two consecutive financial years and continue without interruption for a further two consecutive financial years.

A foundation that does not operate a large business is therefore only required to prepare, on paper, a balance sheet and a statement of income and expenditure within six months after the end of the financial year. Such a foundation is not subject to requirements regarding the preparation, public inspection, submission and adoption of the annual accounts, nor regarding the preparation and public inspection of the management report.