Collection costs (WIK)

Customer still not paying after your reminders? Under certain conditions you may charge extrajudicial collection costs. The Dutch Act on extrajudicial collection costs (WIK) sets how much.

The 14-day letter

With an individual customer you may only charge collection costs after first sending a notice in which you:

• give them 14 days to pay, counted from the day after they receive it;
• state which collection costs you'll charge if they still don't pay.

The final notice in EenFactuurMaken.nl is such a 14-day letter. If the customer is an individual and the invoice is in euros, we state the exact amount of the collection costs. For a business we say that statutory collection costs may be charged.

Calculating the collection costs

The costs are a percentage of the outstanding amount (the principal), in brackets:

Up to €6,775. Examples:

If you're registered for VAT and can reclaim the VAT yourself, you may not charge your customer VAT on the collection costs.

Charging collection costs

EenFactuurMaken.nl doesn't charge the collection costs itself: it states them in the final notice. If your customer still hasn't paid after 14 days, create a new invoice for the collection costs, or hand the claim over to a debt collection agency.

You may also charge statutory interest: for individuals the statutory interest rate, for businesses the (higher) statutory commercial interest rate.

Businesses

Between businesses a 14-day letter isn't required, but it is good practice. If your terms and conditions set different collection costs, those apply (for large amounts). Not sure? Ask a lawyer.