Keeping employee payroll records in the Netherlands

Payroll records

This information is provided by: Tax and Customs Administration, Belastingdienst

Tax and Customs Administration, BelastingdienstNederlandse versie

Do you run a business in the Netherlands? And are you going to hire personnel? As an employer, you will be dealing with payroll taxes. They consist of the following premiums, to be withheld from the employee’s wages: wage tax, social security contributions and healthcare insurance contribution.

Preparing your payroll records

You must make a payroll (loonstaat). Also, before your employee’s first day at work, you must:

gather all the information you need for withholding payroll taxes
verify the employee’s identity and make a copy of his/her valid proof of ID
prepare a payroll

Payroll

You have to fill out a payroll for every employee. The payroll contains data necessary to calculate the wage tax, social security contributions and healthcare insurance contribution. You can download a model payroll (in Dutch) from the Tax and Customs Administration website. You don’t have to use this model, as long as your payroll contains all the data listed in the model payroll.

Payslip

You have to send your employee a payslip periodically (usually once every four weeks, a week or a month), and to provide a yearly statement of income. Also, you must keep records of all (tax-exempt) cost allowances your employee receives. You can find more information on the requirements for employer’s records in the Payroll Taxes Handbook (handboek loonheffingen, in Dutch).