Tag: Netherlands

Charge your mobile by swinging

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Photo by Koen Laureij.

The Dutch will never stop to impress me with their ingenuity.

Being sustainable is now trending in Europe—and in Holland in particular. So in June 2019 my client, NS, has installed a special kind of swing at the Utrecht Centraal railway station.

This new attraction was presented during the “Sustainability Week” (Duurzame Week), and it can charge your mobile phone!

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My entrepreneurship ‣ VAT number for zzp’ers is (finally) to be replaced

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Each legal entity in the Netherlands receives a special identification number called btw-nummer shortly after the registration (btw is Dutch for “value-added tax”).

This number is necessary for invoicing, both domestic and international, and—obviously—for VAT payments.

So what’s so special about it? Well, it turns out that if you’re a self-employed entrepreneur, your VAT number is based upon your BSN identifier. Which is quite a blunder from the privacy point of view.

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Querying any vehicle’s data by its number plate

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The Netherlands has a public service that provides information about nearly any vehicle registered in the country, given its number plate.

The service is called OVI (Online Voertuig Informatie or “Online Vehicle Information”) and is being run by the State Traffic Service RDW (Rijksdienst voor het Wegverkeer), whose responsibility encompasses road infrastructure as well as vehicle certification, including mandatory periodic checkups (APK).

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