You set up a Dutch BV, win your first contracts and decide how much to transfer to your personal account. There is a catch: as an owner who works for the company, you cannot necessarily choose a small salary and take the rest as dividends. Dutch rules require a salary that reflects your work.
In 2026, €58,000 is one of the figures used in that assessment. It is neither a universal salary for every owner nor a promise about your take-home pay. Understanding how the comparison works helps you budget for both the business and your household.
Who needs to think about a customary salary?
The Dutch term is gebruikelijk loon, usually translated as customary salary. The rules apply when you work for a company in which you have a substantial interest. Owning at least 5% of the shares, alone or together with your tax partner, is a common example of such an interest. An owner-director is often called a DGA, short for directeur-grootaandeelhouder.
This article focuses on someone living in the Netherlands and working for their own Dutch BV. If you work or live across borders, the country entitled to tax your salary and the payroll arrangements also need to be established. A Dutch company registration alone does not answer those questions.
A sole proprietor is in a different position. Moving money from an eenmanszaak to a personal account is an owner’s withdrawal, rather than a salary from a separate employer. If you are comparing structures, start with my guide to choosing a Dutch business structure.
Why €58,000 is only part of the calculation
For 2026, the starting point is the highest of three amounts: pay for the most comparable employed role, pay for the highest-paid employee in your company or an associated company, and €58,000 a year. A lower figure can be justified where you can substantiate lower pay for the most comparable work.
Consider an owner running a small software consultancy. Suppose suitable salary evidence puts an equivalent employed role at €84,000, while the company’s highest-paid employee earns €76,000. The starting point is €84,000. The owner cannot simply select €58,000 because that figure appears in an online summary.
The relevant figure is pay before deductions. Taxable benefits may form part of it as well. If your package includes a company car, for example, compare the payroll totals properly instead of looking only at the monthly cash transfer.
Older explanations sometimes use a percentage discount on comparable pay. That discount no longer applies in 2026.
Describe the job before searching for a salary
“Founder” describes your relationship to the company. It tells you much less about the work being done. You might spend most of your week designing products, selling contracts, managing staff or maintaining a small portfolio of assets. Start with those tasks.
Write a short description of your responsibilities, experience and working time. Then find employed roles that resemble them. A salary survey covering directors of large international businesses may be a poor match for someone running a two-person studio. A junior employee’s salary is equally unhelpful if you manage the whole operation.
Keep dated evidence and explain why you selected it. Vacancies with salary ranges, a relevant collective agreement or a suitable remuneration survey can help. Check whether the numbers include holiday allowance, bonuses and benefits before comparing them. A tidy folder with a clear explanation is more useful than a long list of unrelated vacancies.
Does part-time work reduce the amount?
Working time matters, but multiplying €58,000 by your preferred part-time percentage does not by itself establish the right salary. You need to show what comparable pay would be for the work and hours involved.
If you also have an employed job and work on your BV on Fridays, record all the hours you spend on the BV, including work on other days. Compare pay for the duties and hours involved. Your other job does not automatically remove the BV’s salary obligations.
What if the business is still finding its feet?
A new company may have substantial setup costs and little incoming cash. Dutch rules allow a temporary lower salary for qualifying starting businesses that cannot yet pay the customary amount. The period can be up to three years, reduced where the business was already being carried on before the BV was formed. The statutory minimum wage for the hours worked is generally the floor for that starting-business concession.
Serious losses that threaten the company’s survival can also justify a lower salary. A single disappointing year does not automatically qualify. Nor does a cash shortage caused by taking dividends or building up personal drawings from the company.
Prepare figures that explain the problem: current cash, expected receipts, unavoidable payments and when the business expects to afford the salary. A forecast that assumes every customer pays promptly needs revisiting if actual collections are slower.
If you plan to pay a lower salary, document the reason before setting payroll. If the treatment is uncertain, you can request advance consultation with the Dutch Tax Administration. The former special concession for certain innovative start-ups is no longer available in 2026.
A dividend or loan does not replace pay for your work
Salary compensates you for working. A dividend distributes value to you as a shareholder. A company loan creates a debt that you must repay. These are different transactions, even if all three ultimately move money from the same company bank account to you.
Imagine paying yourself €1,500 each month through payroll and transferring a further €2,000 as a loan. Your household receives €3,500, but that does not mean €3,500 of salary has been reported. It also creates €24,000 of extra debt over twelve months, before any interest or repayments.
Labelling those transfers as loans does not remove a salary shortfall. The borrowing needs its own terms and repayment capacity. I explain those requirements in borrowing money from your Dutch BV.
Dividend planning comes after understanding the company’s obligations and your salary position. It involves its own corporate and tax requirements. Avoid starting with the amount you want to receive personally and trying to fit the paperwork around it later.
What does a deemed salary mean?
If the pay reported is below the required customary salary, the missing amount must be treated as pay and taxed. This difference is called fictief loon, or deemed salary, even though that part is not actually paid to you. Transferring less cash therefore does not necessarily mean there is less taxable salary.
Build a company budget and a household budget
Dividing €58,000 by twelve gives roughly €4,833 a month before deductions if spread evenly. It does not tell you what will arrive in your personal account. Payroll deductions and the timing of holiday pay or other components affect the monthly result.
For your household, use the expected net payment and list your regular expenses. For the BV, use the salary, any additional employer costs and the timing of payroll payments. Keep enough business cash available for those obligations as well as supplier invoices and tax.
A profitable company can still struggle to make the next payment if customers have not settled their invoices. My guide to profit without cash explains that gap. A good sales month does not necessarily fund this month’s salary.
Review the salary while there is time to act
Set out the basis when you start working for the BV and check it again when your role or hours change. Save the supporting evidence with your payroll records. Before year-end, compare the amount processed so far with the amount that should be reported for the year.
If they do not match, establish the reason and any payroll corrections required. Waiting until the annual accounts are ready can leave you dealing with an avoidable tax adjustment after you thought the year was settled.
If you need help comparing salary, company finances and your personal income, I offer Dutch tax advice for business owners. Bring recent accounts, payroll details and an outline of your work so we can focus on the figures that matter in your situation.