The Netherlands sits at the center of European cross-border structuring. It is a stable EU member state where business runs comfortably in English, and its treaty network, holding regime, and corporate law have made the Dutch BV a default building block for international groups.
The draw is the combination of features. One of the world's most extensive double-tax-treaty networks reduces withholding friction on cross-border dividend, interest, and royalty flows. The participation exemption can fully exempt qualifying dividends and capital gains at the holding level. Book 2 of the Dutch Civil Code offers a flexible, well-litigated corporate-law framework that international counterparties and lenders already understand. Add full Eurozone banking, a deep custody and capital market, and a mature bench of advocaten, civil-law notaries, and tax advisers, and you have a jurisdiction suited to holding, financing, and intellectual-property structures and to European headquarters.
The Netherlands is also candid about its own direction of travel. It participates in the OECD Common Reporting Standard, FATCA, and the Pillar Two minimum tax, and it has progressively tightened anti-abuse and substance rules, so treaty access and the integrity of a holding structure now depend on economic substance rather than form alone. We treat that as a point in its favor, because a Dutch structure is worth building only if it will withstand scrutiny from the outset. The jurisdiction facts on this page are educational; the substantive Dutch-law advice, and any matter before the AFM or DNB, is delivered by Netherlands-admitted counsel within our partner network.