The 30% ruling can only be granted to you if you are being employed. In case that you are the entrepreneur, you need the facilities of a BV company or other limited liability vehicle. Then you are being employed, then you can have or continue the 30% ruling. At a certain point the ruling expires. Then you are no longer in need of the BV vehicle for the purpose of the 30% ruling. What are your options?
Basically two options: continue or terminate the BV company. From a liability perspective the BV will not shield you, you will be held privately liable as well. In case you are able to sell your BV company in the (near) future, then we suggest to keep it like it is. But if your business model cannot be sold, as it is you that is the business, then terminating the BV company is a good option. The result of the termination is that the obligations with respect to salary, loan agreements, corporate tax rules and you step in the much less complex world of income tax with less tax to be paid in the end. Of course not less than at the time you had the 30% ruling.
You can have the simple procedure of termination BV and new startup one man company, but if you have certain assets in the BV company that have more value than the amount mentioned on the balance, you might be in need of the fiscal facility that enables you to move out of the BV company without immediately pay the tax over this extra value. On of the requirements is that you, the shareholder(s), continue the company at the level of the personal income tax. That implies no change in final ownership. In the aforementioned case and in case you build up a pension fund in your BV company or you provide a loan to yourself, you first need the fiscal assistance to discuss what needs to be done and investigate if this termination actually can be done.
Before the move from the BV company to the individual entrepreneurship we recommend to clean up the balance. This is always a good idea. Clean up implies pay back the too much money you took from the company. You can see the balance in the current account. Solve other debts (not tax related debts) your company might have. Collect debtors that are long outstanding, or ask the tax office if you can write them off.
The procedure is not swift and you have to complete the final corporate income tax return the following year, but after that you will notice that doing business has become less complex and less costly from an administrative point of view.
