Our story
Over a decade of making Dutch taxes make sense, in plain English.
It started with a simple observation
Talk to Mark Bastiaans for five minutes, and you’ll notice it: the man is genuinely passionate about taxes. Most people would say taxes aren’t exactly sexy. Mark would disagree, and by the end of the conversation, you might too.
He learned the profession from every side: advising director-shareholders and their BVs from 2006, four years at Deloitte working on corporate tax, then in-house as tax manager for international firms. But the higher he climbed, the more one thing bothered him. In the world of big advisory, the advice didn’t always start from what was best for the client; it started from what was best for the firm. Hours to bill, products to push, complexity that served the adviser more than the person paying for it.
So in 2014 he made a choice that made no sense on a spreadsheet and all the sense in the world: he left to build a firm where the advice always starts from your interest, even when that means less work for us. Sometimes the best advice is “you don’t need us for this.” At Dutchtaxadvice, you’ll actually hear it.
From one adviser to a full team
What began as a one-man practice in Haarlem grew steadily into a team of tax advisers, payroll specialists, administration and compliance experts. Not by chasing scale, but by doing the work properly and letting satisfied clients do the talking. Companies came for the corporate tax knowledge and stayed for the clarity. Expats came for a tax return and stayed for the feeling of finally understanding their own finances.
In 2016, sister company Rock Payroll was added: an employer of record that helps companies bring international talent to the Netherlands, even without a Dutch entity. Tax, payroll and mobility under one roof, which is exactly how those questions arrive in real life.
The way we work hasn't changed
We’re members of the Dutch Association of Tax Advisers (NOB) and part of the international Clarkson Hyde network, and we support WWF because we believe a healthy economy needs a healthy planet. But the heart of the firm is still what it was in 2014: we care, we know, and we speak your language. Every file gets the advice we’d want for ourselves. Every step gets explained, as often as you need.
The world around us always changes, tax rules most of all. Helping you find your way through it: that’s the work, and we love it.
