Legal form

The legal form decides who is liable for a company's obligations, what it has to file, and what the register publishes about it. In the Netherlands the most common is the private limited company (besloten vennootschap, B.V.), where the owners' liability is limited to what they put in.

The forms the register records, most common first: B.V. — besloten vennootschap, private limited company. The most common form.; N.V. — naamloze vennootschap, public limited company; VOF — vennootschap onder firma, general partnership; CV — commanditaire vennootschap, limited partnership; Eenmanszaak — eenmanszaak, sole proprietorship; Stichting — stichting, foundation; Vereniging — vereniging, association.

The distinction that matters most in practice: legal entities such as the BV and NV file annual accounts, while a sole proprietorship or general partnership in principle does not. No figures are public for that second group.