Second Edition of Payroll Tax Newsletter

The Tax and Customs Administration published the second edition of the 2026 Payroll Tax Newsletter with appendix on 16 December 2025. 

The Newsletter contains a lot of information that had already been announced on Budget Day or at another time in 2025. The Newsletter included the following points of interest:

• Up until the end of 2025 the Payroll Tax Handbook included an error regarding the criteria for home-based service providers working through an agency.  The criterion of "usually on a maximum of three days a week" or "less than four days" is not correct but should be "generally on less than three days per week". This applies only if the client pays the service provider directly. If the client pays the agency, then the agency may be responsible for tax withholding and this criterion does not apply. This error will be rectified in the 2026 edition of the Payroll Tax Handbook. No correction has to be made for previous years if the Handbook was followed.
• As announced on Budget Day, from now on the taxable benefit in kind will be zero on a bicycle that is made available to an employee also for private use but which is only occasionally (i.e. no more than incidentally) kept at the employee's home or place of residence. The Tax and Customs Administration explains the term "kept" (parked) in this newsletter: There is no question of a bike being kept at the home address or place of residence if the employee does not control the bicycle during the period when it is at home or the place of residence. Keeping the bicycle at home or the place of residence would apply if the bike is parked in front of the house and the employee takes the key inside with them. If a bike can be "surrendered" in front of the home via an app, for example, after which the bicycle is no longer available exclusively to the employee, this does not qualify as "keeping" the bike at the home address or place of residence.
• The "Overview of payments and receipts" on www.belastingdienst.nl has been expanded. Here you can now also find payment information about supplementary wage tax assessments, such as the amount, payment references and the correct account number. Payment (only the full amount paid all at once, up to €50,000) can be made directly online using iDeal. The payment history of supplementary assessments for the past two years can also be seen.
• From 1 May 2026 the Tax and Customs Administration will have a new bank and bank account number. The new account number should be used from that date. The old account number may be used throughout 2026 for payroll tax returns. 

An appendix to the Payroll Tax Newsletter has also been published giving the payroll tax rates, amounts and percentages for 2026. The most notable changes are: 

• Salary standard for the expat scheme: €48,013 (under the age of 30: €36,497).
• Minimum customary salary for shareholders with a substantial interest: €58,000
• Early retirement scheme (RVU) exemption threshold: €2,657
• Value of a meal at work: €4.05
• Specific exemption for homeworking: €2.45
• Indicative salary for excessive severance payment: €700,000
• Maximum salary subject to contributions: €79,409