How a Dutch payslip works
A Dutch payslip (loonstrook) usually has one large deduction: the loonheffing. It combines two things that other countries keep apart, the wage tax (loonbelasting) and the contributions to the national insurance schemes (premie volksverzekeringen) for the state pension, survivors' benefits and long-term care. In the first band of the tariff most of what you pay is those contributions rather than tax; in the higher bands it is all tax.
The employer works the loonheffing out with the Belastingdienst's wage tax tables. The calculator uses the white monthly table, the one for pay from employment, and reads it the way a payroll system does: your monthly pay is brought down to the nearest step of the table and the amount printed for that step is withheld. Above the last line of the table, the rule printed under it applies. The tables are generated from the Belastingdienst's own calculation rules, and the figures here match them to the cent.
What you do not see on a Dutch payslip is as important as what you do. The premiums for unemployment and disability insurance, and the income-related health insurance contribution, are all paid by the employer on top of your gross pay. They appear in the employer section below.
The payroll tax credit
The loonheffing is reduced by the payroll tax credit (loonheffingskorting): the general tax credit (algemene heffingskorting) and the labour tax credit (arbeidskorting). The general credit is a fixed amount that is phased out as pay rises. The labour credit is built up over the lower part of the pay scale and then phased out too, which is why the marginal rate in the middle and upper range is higher than the top rate of the tariff itself.
Only one employer or benefit agency may apply the credit, and you choose which one. For a second job, untick the credit: the withholding is then taken at the full tariff, and the annual return settles the difference.
The holiday allowance
By law an employee receives a holiday allowance (vakantiegeld) on top of the regular salary, usually paid in one sum in May. The gross on this page is the whole year's pay including that allowance. Dutch job offers often quote a monthly salary without it, so twelve times the monthly figure is less than your annual gross.
A holiday allowance paid in one sum is not taxed with the monthly table. It goes through the table for special rewards (tabel bijzondere beloningen): one percentage, chosen by your wage over the previous year and adjusted for the tax credit, applied to the whole allowance. That percentage changes in steps as the annual wage crosses the table's bands, so near a band a small raise can change the tax on the allowance by more than the raise itself. The calculator warns you when your salary is close to such a step. Your employer can also pay the allowance with each month's salary, which you can choose above, and the monthly table then applies to the total.
The expat ruling
An employer that recruits someone with specific expertise from abroad can apply the expat ruling, better known as the 30% ruling. The Belastingdienst first has to approve it for that employee. Part of the pay is then treated as a tax-free allowance for the extra costs of living and working away from home, which lowers the wage that loonheffing and the employer's premiums are charged on.
The allowance has three limits, all applied here. It cannot exceed the ruling's share of the pay including the allowance. The taxable wage that remains must stay above a salary norm, which is lower for employees under 30 with a master's degree. And since 2024 the allowance is capped at a share of the norm set by the Dutch law on top incomes. When one of these limits cuts the allowance, or the ruling cannot apply at all, the result says so. The maximum share is scheduled to fall from 2027, except for employees whose ruling was already applied by the end of 2023.
What the employer pays on top
The employer section shows the premiums a Dutch employer pays over your wage, each up to the same annual maximum: the unemployment fund premium (AWf), which is lower for a permanent written contract than for a temporary or on-call one; the disability fund premium (Aof), which is lower for small employers; the childcare surcharge (Wko); the return-to-work fund premium (Whk); and the employer's health insurance levy (werkgeversheffing Zvw). The Whk rate is set for each employer by its sector or its own claims history, so the calculator uses the published average rate. The employer's share of the pension premium is not included.
What this calculator assumes
The result models an employee under state pension age who lives in the Netherlands and earns the same amount every month for the full year. It does not cover:
- Pension contributions. Most employees are in a sector or company pension fund, and the employee's share, which lowers the taxable wage, depends entirely on the fund.
- Employees who have reached state pension age, who pay no state pension contribution and have different credits, and people who live outside the Netherlands.
- A thirteenth month, bonuses, overtime, a company car, travel allowances and anything else taxed through the table for special rewards or added to the wage in kind.
- The young disabled person's tax credit (jonggehandicaptenkorting) and a year in which you start or stop working.
The nominal premium for your own basic health insurance is not a payroll item at all. Every resident buys a basic policy from an insurer and pays that premium out of net pay, so it still has to come out of the figure shown here.
Payroll versus the annual return
The loonheffing is final for many employees, but not for all. The annual income tax return (aangifte inkomstenbelasting) works out the credits on your whole income rather than on one wage, adds other income and deductions, and settles any difference left by the table for special rewards. Someone with two jobs, a partner, a mortgage or income from savings will usually see the return change the outcome. Use this page to understand a payslip or compare offers, and the return for the final figure.