Facing a Thuiskopie audit? Build the evidence for your case.
When Stichting de Thuiskopie questions your device transactions, you need evidence behind your response. We reconstruct the historical records so you and your adviser can examine the claim and defend your position.
A letter arrives from Stichting de Thuiskopie asking for records, or claiming a levy is unpaid. The transactions may go back years. You believe the claim needs challenging, but the evidence is spread across supplier emails, scans, spreadsheets and old systems. The first problem is to establish what actually happened. A reconstructed transaction history gives you the facts to work from.
What is thuiskopieheffing, and why can a business be audited?
Thuiskopieheffing is the Dutch private-copying levy on covered devices and storage media, including smartphones, tablets and laptops. Stichting de Thuiskopie collects it. Importers and manufacturers have reporting and payment obligations; sellers can also be asked for records showing whether the responsible party paid.
For businesses with an incasso agreement, the published audit process checks reporting through an accountant's statement or supporting data. A request for records can also concern the transaction chain. It is therefore important to distinguish an annual contractual audit from a particular claim about unpaid levies. Start with the actual letter and the period it covers.
How can reconstructed records help challenge a Thuiskopie claim?
Break the claim into its stated periods, quantities and amounts. Link each disputed figure to the transactions and documents that support or contradict it. Where did the devices come from? Who supplied them? Is there evidence of earlier levy payment? Were they sold in the Netherlands or exported? Link each answer to a source rather than relying on a total or an unconfirmed statement.
For refurbished and second-hand devices, the source of the goods matters. Stichting de Thuiskopie's current guidance distinguishes purchases from Dutch private individuals, resellers and professional users. Export and professional-use treatment also have evidence requirements and conditions. Your adviser assesses which rules apply to the transactions and period in question; the reconstructed history gives them the facts to examine.
Source: Stichting de Thuiskopie, current reporting guidance
You cannot defend your position with records you cannot find.
Which records should you gather for a Thuiskopie audit?
Keep the letter or claim, previous declarations and correspondence. Gather purchase invoices, supplier identities and confirmations, stock records and matching sales invoices. Add import, transport, customs or export documents where relevant. Preserve product types, quantities, dates and device identifiers wherever the sources contain them.
Connect the records so the route from purchase to sale or export can be followed. Show the source behind each match and label missing documents, duplicate records and uncertain links. A missing invoice should remain a visible gap. It should not become a guessed transaction in the finished dossier.
Can a domestic purchase or export prove that no levy is owed?
A Dutch supplier invoice can help identify the transaction chain, but it does not by itself establish that the levy was paid. Export records can support examination of the relevant treatment, but an export does not automatically cancel an unpaid claim. Payment evidence, the applicable conditions and any refund deadlines need to be assessed together.
Do not rely on old advice that refurbished devices are always outside the levy. The collecting body's current guidance reflects a September 2025 judgment and expressly changes its earlier explanation about making a device ready for use. Match the records to the relevant period and ask your adviser to assess the position.
Source: Stichting de Thuiskopie, export and professional-use conditions
How does Verbrio help you build the evidence for your case?
We reconstruct historical purchase and sales data from documents and existing systems. Our document-processing software extracts and organises the information. We match related records and review exceptions to produce a transaction history linked to its sources, with unresolved questions clearly identified.
For one Dutch wholesaler, we reconstructed five years of trading history from roughly 20,000 pages. The result gives you and your adviser a dossier for examining the claim and supporting the response.
You can engage us for historical reconstruction without buying ongoing automation. Bring the request, the period involved and a representative sample of your records. We assess the source material and agree the scope of the reconstruction project.
Start here.
- 01Identify the transactions, period and assumptions in the claim with your adviser.
- 02Preserve source documents and reconstruct the purchase-to-sale or export trail.
- 03Challenge unsupported figures with documented facts, keeping unresolved gaps visible.
Verbrio reconstructs the evidence. Your adviser assesses the legal position and handles the argument or response. Reconstructing records does not guarantee that a claim will be reduced or dismissed. Get help reconstructing your Thuiskopie evidence Explore historical records reconstruction
