As of July 1, 2022, a new Dutch law has come into effect that shortens the legal payment terms of large companies to SMEs from 60 days to 30 days. This is in response to an earlier survey conducted by SME companies. This survey revealed that large companies are increasingly late in paying SMEs.
This law initially only affected new contracts between large companies and SMEs, but will apply to all (existing) contracts as of July 1, 2023.
Late payments
Liquidity of SMEs is often under pressure, especially now that the corona loan must be repaid. The previous law allowed large companies and SMEs a standard payment period of 30 days, but a 60-day extension could be contractually agreed upon. In practice, large companies even found that when signs of challenging times, stretched the deadline to 90 or even 120 days.
The new bill uses 30 days as the maximum. Even if contractually agreed otherwise. These contractual agreements are then automatically annulled and the amount can be claimed within 30 days by the SME. The Government believes that large companies have an exemplary role in payment transactions and that putting pressure on them is an abuse of power. With this law, the Government is trying to prevent this form of abuse of power.
SME-indicator & Paydex
It can be somewhat complicated to find out which companies fall under the SME legislation. You do not always have the data needed for this at hand. The SME indicator can be the solution. You can request this indicator from us. contact you can contact us and we'll identify all SME's in your database. This keeps your Paydex in order and keeps you from paying late.
The Paydex shows the payment habits of companies. This way, you can easily assess whether a company regularly pays on time. Now is the time to start monitoring the Paydex ยฎ score of customers. How will this change after the new law comes into force? A strongly changing score can indicate that a company has not yet adjusted internally to the changed payment term. Naturally, you want to prevent late and non-payers. The white paper below provides more information and tips.
White paper: Prevent late payers and defaulters: Protect your organization and get paid faster
