For many creators this is not the most tiresome question around becoming an entrepreneur but the only one that genuinely causes tension: if I register with the KVK, the Dutch chamber of commerce, can someone find me? It is a fair question, and the answer is more nuanced than either the optimists or the pessimists say.
The short version: your home address can be shielded, your business address cannot. If you work from home, those two are the same address, and shielding does not then solve your problem. There are solutions, but you have to arrange them before you register rather than after.
What is in the trade register
The trade register is public, and that is the intention: it exists so you can check who you are doing business with. For a sole trader it holds, among other things:
- The trading name of your business
- The name of the owner, so your name
- The business address of the enterprise
- The KVK number, the start date and the activities with an SBI code
Part of that is visible to everyone in the online search register. Part can be requested in an extract. And that difference is exactly where the privacy discussion sits.
Shielding your home address, and what it does not do
You can ask the KVK to shield your home address. That means the address is no longer visible to everyone in the public part. Certain parties, such as government bodies, lawyers and bailiffs, can still request it.
Here is the trap. Shielding applies to your home address. The business address of your enterprise is a different data item, and it stays visible. So if you register your business at your home address, that address is still there, as the business address. The shielding then has no effect in practice, because the address can still be obtained through the other route.
That is not a detail: it is why creators who thought they had arranged this properly can still be found. If you want to do something about it, you have to make sure your business address is not your home address.
Putting your business address somewhere else
For a business you actually run from home there are a few routes to separate the business address from where you live. Which one suits depends on your situation and your budget:
- A rented workspace or studio. The most solid route, because there is a real place. Often sensible commercially too if you are doing shoots anyway.
- A spot with a co-working provider. Often including an address you can register at. Check that the address may actually be used as a business address, because that varies by provider.
- A business address service. Here you have to be careful: the KVK sets requirements for a business address, and a pure postal address with no actual presence is not always accepted. Ask before you pay.
What we advise creators who genuinely worry about this: arrange it before you register. Changing an address is possible, but the old entry has then been public for a while and may have been picked up by parties that read the trade register. That cannot be undone.
Your name and your trading name
With a sole trader your own name is in the register as the owner. That cannot be shielded. What you can do is choose a trading name that is neither your creator name nor your own name. The link between your public profile and the register is then not one search away.
Give that a moment's thought before you fill anything in. A trading name containing your creator name makes your business findable by everyone who knows that name, and that is precisely your audience. A neutral trading name works better, and there is no fiscal disadvantage whatsoever.
For anyone for whom the publicity of their own name is a real problem, a BV, a Dutch private limited company, is a different structure in which visibility works out differently. It does bring costs and obligations that are often out of proportion for a creator starting out. When that tips is set out in from sole trader to BV as a creator.
The SBI code and what it gives away
When you register you choose one or more SBI codes for your activities. Those codes are public in the register, with their descriptions. Some descriptions say more about the nature of your work than you would want.
You do not have to choose a code that gives away something that does not matter fiscally, and at the same time your code has to cover your actual activity. Where that line sits and how to choose a fitting code is in which SBI code fits a content creator.
Where your invoices give you away anyway
Privacy does not stop at the register. An invoice carries your name or trading name, your address and your VAT number. If you send invoices to Dutch brands, those details go with them.
Two things help there. Use the business address that is not your home address, and that is what appears on your invoices. And bear in mind that a sole trader's VAT number does not contain your citizen service number; that used to be different and was changed, for exactly this reason.
Who reads the trade register, and why speed matters
The trade register is not only looked at by people who want to know something about you. It is read systematically by parties that turn it into data: address suppliers, marketing lists, business information services and site generators that publish a page per KVK number.
That is why this subject belongs before your registration and not after. An address that has been public for three months has been copied by parties you have no contact with and that the KVK does not control. Changing your address in the register works forwards, not backwards.
Concretely that means: if you are unsure whether privacy is an issue for you, assume it is and arrange it at the start. It costs a few hundred euro a year and it cannot be undone if you get it wrong.
KVK registration step by step, with the choices that stick
Registering takes you past four choices, three of which are hard or impossible to repair later:
- Your trading name. Changeable later, but the old name will already have been public. Choose a name that is neither your creator name nor your own name.
- Your business address. This is the choice that counts. Make sure it is not your home address if you do not want to be found.
- Your start date. It should be the moment you actually began trading, not the day you register. Where there is a backlog this is an item with consequences; see putting a backlog of returns right.
- Your SBI codes. Adjustable, and the description is public. See which SBI code fits a content creator.
Applying for a VAT number runs through the same registration. Watch out there that you do not tick the small businesses scheme as a matter of course: for creators with foreign platform income it almost always works out wrong and you are tied to it for a number of years. See the KOR as a creator.
Discretion outside the register
The trade register is one channel. There are more where creators leave details without thinking about it:
- Your bank. The name on your business account can become visible in payments you make or receive.
- Your invoices. Name, address and VAT number go to every brand you work with.
- Parcel delivery. A barter deal means a brand has your address.
- Your domain name, if you have your own site.
For the first two a business address that is not your home address helps directly. For the third a postal address or parcel point is the practical solution, and it is the side on which creators most often give their home address away by accident.
Frequently asked questions
Can I register without an address?
No. A business has to have a business address and the KVK checks it. So the question is not whether you supply an address, but which one.
Can I have my home address shielded later?
You can apply for shielding, including after registering. But as above: if your business address is the same as your home address it stays visible through that route. Changing the address is then the step that does work.
Is a PO box a solution?
A PO box is not a business address. It can be useful for correspondence, not for your registration.
Roughly what does a separate business address cost?
That varies too much by provider and city to put a figure on here. What we can say: for creators who lie awake over this it is in practice the cheapest peace of mind available, and it is a business cost that comes off your profit.
Do you work with creators who want to stay entirely anonymous publicly?
Yes, for a large part of our clients that is the normal situation. Discretion is not an extra service with us but the standard. See how we work.
What shielding does do
To be fair about the arrangement: shielding your home address is not pointless, it is simply not sufficient in the most common situation. It does work if your business address and your home address differ, because then your home address is the only item that would still be visible.
So the combination is the solution: a business address that is not your home address, plus shielding of your home address. The first without the second leaves your home address visible as the owner's private address; the second without the first leaves it visible through the business address. Apply for them together, and at the start.
In closing
The most important sentence in this article: shielding your home address is not the same as a shielded business address, and for someone working from home only the second is effective. Arrange that before you register.
We guide creators through this on OnlyFans and F2F, where it is more often one of the first subjects than one of the last.