Retail. Your shop runs, your figures add up.

Food and non-alcoholic drinks have 9% VAT, even when the customer eats or drinks them on the premises. Books and real flowers and plants too. Alcohol and almost everything else have 21%. Each item on the receipt keeps its own rate and the till splits the turnover. Do you sell a package for one price, such as a gift basket with wine and chocolate? Then you divide the price according to the normal prices of the parts. If you don't, you pay 21% on the whole amount.

That depends on what the customer can buy with it. If only items at one rate, you pay the VAT when you sell the card. If the customer can buy both 9% and 21% items with it, you only pay the VAT when the card is redeemed. A discount voucher is different: there you pay VAT on the amount the customer pays on top at the next purchase.

The till is part of your accounting records. Every transaction must be kept, with continuous numbering. The till also records corrections, opening the drawer without a sale and changes to prices or VAT rates. You keep that data for 7 years. A paper roll is not enough. Make a daily cash report every day: turnover according to the till, card payments, cash, the counted cash and the difference. That way you can show every day that the till balances.

Up to and including €2,999.99, yes. Since 1 January 2026, a shop may not accept €3,000 or more in cash, not even in instalments. The fine has a base amount of €10,000. You may still refuse cash for now, if you make that clear in advance and the customer can pay another way. An obligation to accept cash up to €3,000 is coming. The aim is for it to apply from 2027. The date has not been set yet (as of October 2026).

The municipality decides whether shops may open on Sundays. You are not obliged to open. Your landlord or retailers' association cannot simply change the opening hours without your consent. An employee only works on Sunday if that has been agreed in the employment contract or if the employee agrees to it. Every 52 weeks, the employee is entitled to at least 13 Sundays off, unless the cao says otherwise.

Yes, with rules per age. At 13 and 14, only light work such as stacking shelves, not on school days. At 15, also stacking shelves, but not at the till, with at most 2 hours per school day and 12 hours per school week, between 7.00 and 19.00. From 16, almost anything is allowed, including the till, but no night work and no overtime. The minimum wage for a 16-year-old is €5.17 an hour (from 1 July 2026). Many retail cao's pay more.

That depends on what you sell. Fashion, footwear, sports and most other non-food, including online stores, fall under the Retail Non-Food cao. It has not yet been declared generally binding, but a pension with Pensioenfonds Detailhandel is compulsory. Furniture and home stores fall under the same cao, with the home furnishings module. The Food Retail cao and the Craft Bakeries cao have expired, and a new one is being negotiated. The Butchers cao and the Drugstores cao are generally binding. We find out what applies to your shop (as of October 2026).

A shop lease normally runs for 5 years and is then automatically extended by 5 years. With a contract of 2 years or less, you have no rent protection. Notice is given by registered letter or through a bailiff, with a notice period of at least a year. The landlord must give the reason. In between, the rent only goes up as stated in the contract. When the term ends, you can ask the court to compare the rent with similar premises in the area.

We mainly work for shops and online stores that are growing. Have you just started? On our page for starters you read what to arrange in your first year.