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 and your partner becom joint business owners.

Children working for you

For children working in your company, these options are available:

Real employment

Your child has the same employment conditions as other employees, is insured under the employee insurance schemes, and the normal rules for payroll tax apply.

Fictitious employment 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.

In a fictitious employer-employee relationship:

• you pay payroll tax and social insurance premiums
• the child is not insured under employee insurance schemes
• you must adhere to all administrative duties (such as keeping a copy of the identity document)

The fictitious employment relationship does not apply if the child receives business profits from their parents. In some cases, you can use a simplified arrangement for payroll taxes/national lisurance premiums and healthcare insurance premiums (Zvw). You can find more information on the arrangements for children working in your company in chapter 18.11 (Meewerkende kinderen) 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.