Spouse, civil partner or children working in the company

If you own a company in the Netherlands and your spouse or civil partner or your child starts working for you, several arrangements are possible.

Spouse or civil partner

• You pay less than €5,000 and apply the working (fiscal) partner's abatement (meewerkaftrek).
• You agree to pay them a fair remuneration.
• You enter into an employment contract with them, which means they become your employee.
• You both become separate business owners.

You can find more information on working partners in chapter 16.1 of the Payroll Taxes Handbook (Handboek Loonheffingen, pdf, in Dutch).

Children working for you

For children working in your company, 3 arrangements are available:

• You enter into an employment contract with your child.
• Your child works on the basis of the family relationship (fictitious employer-employee relationship). The child is at least 15 years of age and the employment conditions differ from those of other employees because of the family relationship.
  • you pay payroll tax and social insucance premiums
  • the child is not insured under employee insurance schemes
  • you must adhere to all adminstrative duties (such as keeping a copy of the identity document)
• You and your child become joint business owners.

You can find more information on the arrangements for children working in your company in chapter 16.11 of the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration’s Dutch-language Payroll Taxes Handbook (Handboek Loonheffingen, pdf, in Dutch).

Please contact the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration for more information.