Blog Posts | ASK LINDA

[2025 Update] The Hidden VAT Loophole for Small Dutch Businesses: Cost-Sharing Groups Explained

What Is a Cost-Sharing Group (CSG) and Why It Matters in the Netherlands? If you operate a micro or small enterprise in the Netherlands, especially in healthcare, education , or VAT-exempt sectors, yo...

ES IT Linda Pavan NL TAX

Jul 17, 2025 LINDA PAVAN

Paolo Maria Pavan

The Truth Nobody Tells You: Why Real Sustainability Starts with Calm, Not Carbon Credits

Introduction: Sustainability Is Not a Strategy, It’s a Nervous System Sustainability in business has become synonymous with dashboards, ESG ratings, and CSR checklists. But the real foundation of sust...

ES ESG IT NL Paolo Maria Pavan WISE

Jul 16, 2025 WISE

Paolo Maria Pavan

Why 95% of Exporting Industries Are Worried: The Trade Policy Earthquake You Can’t Ignore

Introduction: Trade Anxiety Is Now the Default Setting for Exporters If you're running a business that exports goods, machinery, chemicals, wood, or even paper—you're likely feeling something heavy in...

AUDIO DUTCH ECONOMY ES IT NL Paolo Maria Pavan

Jul 16, 2025 PAOLO MARIA PAVAN

Linda Pavan

Dutch Court Limits Belastingdienst’s Assumptions on Customary Salary (Gebruikelijk Loon): What Every Micro-BV Owner Must Know

Summary: Why This Judgment Matters for Every Dutch Micro-BV If you're a Dutch entrepreneur who owns a micro-BV, a private limited company with one shareholder, this recent court decision is more than ...

ES IT Linda Pavan NL TAX

Jul 16, 2025 LINDA PAVAN

Paolo Maria Pavan

Documentation Is a Form of Dignity

The Dignity of the Written Word When I was a child, my grandfather, an old Engineerwith ink-stained fingers, once told me: “What is not written is not real.” At the time, it felt too severe. Why shoul...

ES ESG IT NL Paolo Maria Pavan WISE

Jul 15, 2025 WISE

Paolo Maria Pavan

Why the Netherlands Is Keeping Dead Companies Alive (And Pretending It's a Recovery)

The Surface Story: Numbers that Reassure June 2025: 313 companies were declared bankrupt in the Netherlands. That’s an 18% drop compared to the same month a year earlier. The bankruptcy rate sits at 8...

AUDIO DUTCH ECONOMY ES IT NL Paolo Maria Pavan

Jul 15, 2025 PAOLO MARIA PAVAN

Linda Pavan

What Happens When Your Supplier Cheats? You Pay Twice.

Not Just for Big Players If you think VAT fraud is a distant, high-level concern, let this case serve as your wake-up call. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has made it painfully clear: even micro ...

ES IT Linda Pavan NL TAX

Jul 15, 2025 LINDA PAVAN

Paolo Maria Pavan

Why Founders Must Govern Themselves First

The Lesson Beneath the Silence When Noostech came to an end in the aftermath of COVID, it wasn’t just a company that closed. It was a moment suspended in time, complex, painful, and intimate. A chapte...

ES ESG IT NL Paolo Maria Pavan WISE

Jul 14, 2025 WISE

Paolo Maria Pavan

Why Your Business Is Clapping for 0.5% Growth Like It's a Win, And Why That Should Scare You

Exports Up 0.5%. Should We Celebrate? May 2025. The Dutch export machine, once an iron heartbeat of Europe, managed a whisper of growth: just +0.5% in volume (corrected for working days) compared to M...

AUDIO DUTCH ECONOMY ES IT NL Paolo Maria Pavan

Jul 14, 2025 PAOLO MARIA PAVAN

Linda Pavan

What Tax Advisors Won’t Tell You About That iShares Case And Why Your Small Dutch Business Is Next

A Tax Case That Isn’t Just for the Big Funds You might think a European tax case involving iShares and Spanish dividend withholding has little to do with your small business in Rotterdam, Haarlem, or ...

ES IT Linda Pavan NL TAX

Jul 14, 2025 LINDA PAVAN

Paolo Maria Pavan

The Ethics of Letting Someone Go

I. The Uncomfortable Question We All Avoid Let me begin not with numbers, but with a memory. It was early spring, Amsterdam still grey. I had just signed off on a termination notice, an act I had post...

ES ESG IT NL Paolo Maria Pavan WISE

Jul 11, 2025 WISE

Paolo Maria Pavan

Why That Quiet 1.1% Jump in Spending Is the Wake-Up Call Smart Entrepreneurs Needed

A Modest Number with a Loud Signal When CBS tells us that Dutch households spent 1.1% more in May 2025 than in May 2024, most executives raise an eyebrow, then move on. Too small to celebrate, too gre...

DUTCH ECONOMY ES IT NL Paolo Maria Pavan

Jul 11, 2025 PAOLO MARIA PAVAN