Further expansion and relaxation of regulations for entrepreneurs

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate (EZK) further complements the financial support for entrepreneurs due to the coronavirus and simplifies the conditions of regulations. This will help tens of thousands of additional entrepreneurs. The criteria for the schemes Guarantee for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (BMKB) and Guarantee for Entrepreneurs Affected Sectors COVID-19 (TOGS) have been relaxed. State Secretary Mona Keijzer (EZK) also announced today that the subsidy ceiling of the so-called SEED Capital scheme for 2020 will be almost one and a half times as high.

State Secretary Mona Keijzer (EZK): "Appropriate schemes for entrepreneurs normally take months or years. But many companies now have acute problems: corona therefore forces us sometimes to act within a day. So these economic crisis measures do not stand still. The government is currently working on additional support plans on top of the current jobs and economy emergency package and today's announcements. I'm also talking about that this week with a large sector such as the hospitality industry, but also with smaller sectors that have been hit hard, such as the fairground sector".

Longer duration and lower threshold corona regulation BMKB

Extra credit helps entrepreneurs gain liquidity to stay afloat in heavy weather. That is why financing for entrepreneurs is once again being relaxed via the special corona scheme of the Borgstelling Midden en Kleinbedrijf (BMKB) (Guarantee for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises).

The term of a loan will be extended to four years, giving entrepreneurs more time to repay it. Access to the BMKB will be made more accessible: in addition to an extensive liquidity forecast, a turnover test can also be used. At the beginning of April, the Ministry of Economic Affairs reduced the premium of the scheme (from 3.9 to 2 percent) and increased the guarantee budget (from EUR 765 million to EUR 1.5 billion).

Budget SEED Capital scheme in 2020 to 32 million euros

The budget of the SEED Capital scheme, through which the Ministry of EZK provides capital to investment funds, will be increased from EUR 22 million to EUR 32 million. Under this scheme, the government supports innovative companies, including start-ups in the technological (such as high-tech and eHealth) and creative fields, in obtaining venture capital from investment funds.

Enterprises are also eligible for TOGS through registered spin-offs.

From 29 April 2020, entrepreneurs will also be able to claim under the COVID-19 (TOGS) Scheme for the Meeting of Entrepreneurs Affected Sectors (TOGS) on the basis of their secondary activity registered in the Trade Register. The Cabinet has given more than a quarter of Dutch businesses a tax-free gift of 4,000 euros because, in addition to the economic consequences of the coronavirus, they have also been directly affected by Cabinet measures.

The expansion concerns entrepreneurs who are not entitled to the TOGS scheme with their registered main activity, whereas this would be the case on the basis of their registered secondary activity. After analysis of the reports from entrepreneurs to RVO on this subject, it appears that this registered secondary activity sometimes fits in better with the actual business activities. A requirement is, however, that the entrepreneur meets the minimum requirements in terms of loss of turnover and fixed charges (both EUR 4,000) on the basis of the registered secondary activity only. The scheme can be found via rvo.nl/togs.

Corona scheme Guarantee Enterprise Financing (GO)

The increase in the guarantee ceiling of the Corona Guarantee Enterprise Finance (JV) scheme from EUR 400 million to EUR 10 billion has been approved by the European Commission. As a result, this corona scheme can be officially opened to companies on Wednesday 29 April 2020 with a loan term of six years.

With the corona scheme within the JV, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation helps both SMEs and large companies. This will be done by guaranteeing bank loans (minimum 1.5 million - extended to a maximum of 150 million euros per company). As previously announced, the maximum guarantee percentage has now been increased from 50% to 80% for large companies and 90% for SMEs on condition that they are affected by corona.