You are a starting entrepreneur and you are making good progress. You receive more and more orders and the turnover and profit keep increasing. You open a second branch and even hire staff. Things are going well for you! But then disaster strikes and you are involved in a traffic accident or an occupational accident. You are incapacitated for work and your company is at a standstill or your staff is on their own.
What now? In this article we inform you what you can do to prevent loss of income and how you can recover personal injury from a liable party.
Prevent loss of income as an independent entrepreneur.
To safeguard your income, it is possible to insure yourself against incapacity for work. Most major insurers offer these disability insurance policies. The advantage is that in the event of incapacity for work due to, for example, an occupational accident (Dutch: bedrijfsongeval) you will receive a monthly payment. The amount of the disability benefit depends on the amount that you insured and the type of insurance. Turnover or profit is not reimbursed with disability insurance. This is an immediate disadvantage of this insurance. Another disadvantage is that the premium is often high. This is especially the case with physically demanding work such as in construction.
Recover personal injury claims for self employed entrepreneurs.
Imagine you are on the way to a business contact for your company. On the way you will be hit and injured. As a result, you can no longer work and you will lose turnover and profit. You also incur medical costs and need help with your care. In the coming period you will also be disabled for work. If you are involved in a car accident and someone else is liable, you are entitled to personal injury compensation. All your damage must then be paid by the insurer of the liable insurer. As a self-employed person, it mainly concerns your loss of income!
In the case of loss of income, the turnover is not considered, so it is not reimbursed. It concerns the income that you miss due to the traffic accident. In principle, this amount is equal to the profit of your company minus the income tax that you have to pay on your profit. We call this disposable income.
It is not easy to recover personal injury claims. Fortunately, you can use the services of a personal injury lawyer (Dutch: letselschade advocaat). The latter will hold the guilty party liable, draw up a statement of damage and recover your personal injury from the insurer of the liable party. In the event of personal injury, you are not only entitled to compensation for your loss of income. All damage you suffer as a result of an accident must be paid for by the insurer of the liable party. This concerns all costs that you incur, such as travel costs and medical costs. But you are also entitled to an amount of pain relief. That is compensation for the pain you suffer from the traffic accident and the grief you suffer as a result.
