How to set up and run payroll in the Netherlands
If you are about to run your first Dutch payroll, the order in which you set things up matters more than the tooling. This walkthrough is the sequence we run for every new client, with the practical detail that the official guidance leaves out.
By Joost Hubregtse, Payroll Director
01 - Register as a withholding agent
Before a single euro of salary is paid, the company has to be registered with the Belastingdienst as a wage tax withholding agent (loonheffingen-plichtige). This is a separate registration from the corporate income tax registration that happens at incorporation, and it triggers monthly filing obligations from the moment it is active.
Without it, no payslip you produce is compliant - and you cannot apply the 30% ruling, the heffingskorting, or any income-related tax credit. In practice the registration takes 2-4 weeks; start it in parallel with hiring, not after the first contract is signed.
Foreign employers without a Dutch entity can register as a non-resident withholding agent, but it is rarely the right tool when you are hiring more than one person. Below that threshold an Employer of Record is usually faster and cheaper.
02 - Choose a pension fund
Most Dutch sectors are covered by a mandatory industry pension fund (Bedrijfstakpensioenfonds, Bpf) under the relevant CAO. Even when not mandatory, offering a pension scheme is a competitive baseline for skilled hires. The choice is locked once the first contribution is made - do this before issuing the first contract, not after.
When no mandatory fund applies, the practical options are a multi-employer PPI (pensioenfondsverzekeraar) or a direct insurer scheme. Both have legitimate use cases; the right answer depends on workforce mix and how much administrative load your HR function can carry.
03 - Issue the contract before the start date
Dutch contracts must be in writing, must specify the trial period (if any), and must reference the applicable CAO. The 'ketenregeling', in its current form since the Wet Arbeidsmarkt in Balans (WAB) took effect on 1 January 2020, caps fixed-term contracts at three within a 36-month window; the fourth contract converts automatically into an open-ended contract, and a break of more than six months resets the chain. A pending legislative proposal in the arbeidsmarktpakket (Wet meer zekerheid flexwerkers) would extend that interruption term to five years, but that is a bill, not law - draft against the current six-month rule.
Probation periods are limited by contract duration: no probation for contracts shorter than six months, one month for contracts of six months to two years, and a maximum of two months for longer or open-ended contracts. Getting this wrong voids the clause entirely.
04 - Run the first payslip parallel to your test
The first month always surfaces something: a wrong tax credit application, a missed sectoral surcharge, a CAO holiday allowance that runs to 8.33% instead of 8%, a pension contribution that lags by one month. Run the first cycle as a parallel test with a manual check before payment.
Keep the test journal: at year-end you will want it back when reconciling the jaaropgaaf against general ledger entries.
05 - Year-end is its own project
The jaaropgaaf, the WGA differentiation review, the 30% ruling renewals, the WKR-budget reconciliation - December and January are denser than the rest of the year combined. Calendar this from the start, and budget at least one full-time week of finance attention.
If you outsource payroll, agree the year-end deliverables in writing now, not in November. The good providers are fully booked by then.