Dutch Payroll Company for Foreign Employers

Your company. The Belastingdienst states that a business always remains responsible for its return when a tax service provider files it. Each director of the withholding agent is jointly and severally liable for unpaid wage tax (art. 36 Invorderingswet 1990), and a missed notification of inability to pay within two weeks presumes the director at fault.

Not with this service: your company stays the employer and withholding agent. With payrolling, the payroll company formally employs the staff you recruited, and the hirer can still be held liable for unpaid payroll tax. Lending labour needs an admission under the Wtta from 1 January 2027, and the Labour Authority enforces it, hirers included, from 1 January 2028.

Only through the routes of art. 6 Wet LB 1964: a Dutch permanent establishment or permanent representative, registration as withholding agent with its payroll records kept in the Netherlands, or a Dutch group company the inspector designates on joint request. Which route applies to a given company, and what it takes in practice, is a conversation before registration.

If you are paid as director, yes: the BV employs its director and withholds payroll taxes. A holder of 5 percent or more of the shares owes a customary salary of at least EUR 58,000 for 2026, or the higher comparable amounts, unless a lower comparable wage is shown (art. 12a Wet LB 1964).

Yes, for the director's fees. The directorship of a body established in the Netherlands is deemed performed in the Netherlands (art. 7.2 Wet IB 2001), so the BV runs payroll for those fees. Whether a tax treaty or a social security rule changes the outcome for a given country is a question for a conversation.

Yes, registration comes before you employ staff. A foreign employer usually receives the payroll tax number and the return letter within 1 week, longer if more information is asked. A Dutch employer receives the number within 5 working days and the letter within 3 weeks. The sector letter follows within at most 8 weeks, usually 3.

No fee is stated on the Belastingdienst's registration pages. The BV that will employ pays the one-off KVK registration fee of EUR 85.15 (2026), the same for every legal form. The employer's running cost is the wage plus the 2026 contributions. Our fee is on request; it depends on headcount, pay frequency and the items carried.

The return period is usually one month or four weeks. Each return is filed within the inspector's term of at least one month after the period (art. 10 AWR) and paid within one month after it (art. 19 AWR). Missing, late, wrong or incomplete: up to EUR 1,675 per return; late payment: up to EUR 6,709 (2026).

Yes. Once registered, the employer files for every return period on its return letter. A nil return is due when there are no employees in the period, and a zero return when there are employees but no wages were paid. A missing return can cost up to EUR 1,675 (art. 67b AWR, 2026), so we file both.

Not in three cases business.gov.nl lists: they cannot be dismissed against their will; with immediate family they hold two-thirds or more of the votes; or they hold the shares with all other directors in equal participation. Uninsured, the director-shareholder pays the 4.85 percent Zvw contribution; insured, the BV pays the 6.10 percent employer levy (2026).

Together they are the loonheffingen: wage tax and national insurance contributions in three 2026 brackets (35.75 percent combined in bracket 1 below state pension age, then 37.56 and 49.50 percent), the employer's employee insurance contributions on wages up to EUR 79,409 a year, and the 6.10 percent Zvw employer levy.

Loonheffingen (payroll taxes) is the collective name for what an employer withholds and pays through one return: wage tax, national insurance contributions, employee insurance contributions and the Zvw employer levy or contribution. It is filed as the aangifte loonheffingen (payroll tax return) for each return period, usually monthly or four-weekly.

The employer may reimburse up to 30 percent of the wage tax-free for at most five years, capped at EUR 78,600 in 2026. A request within four months of the start runs back to the start. The payroll sets it in each year's first wage period, retests the 2026 salary norm of EUR 48,013 and applies 27 percent from 2027.

The gross wage and its components, the applicable minimum wage, the deductions, the employer's and the employee's names, the period, the agreed hours and the contract type. It is given at the first payment and after any change. Holiday allowance is at least 8 percent of the wage, paid in June unless agreed otherwise, and at least once a year.

Seven years (art. 52 AWR). The duty applies to every lichaam (body), a BV included, and covers the payroll records (loonadministratie) as part of the administration. Our yearly cycle keeps each pay run and each return for that period; the duty itself stays with the employer, as the responsibility for the return does.