A court-led tax repair will lower some workers’ net pay and leave employers handling the human consequence.
Imagine a small employer reviewing the first January payroll. One employee’s gross wage has not changed. Neither has the benefit paid through the company. Yet the amount reaching the employee’s bank account is markedly lower. The calculation may be correct, but the conversation will still begin with one question: what happened to my pay?
That situation follows from the Belastingdienst’s first Newsletter Loonheffingen 2027, published on 19 August. From 1 January 2027, employers may no longer calculate the labour tax credit over specified social-security benefits paid through the employer or by an eigenrisicodrager. The new treatment starts without an additional transition period.
The government estimates that about 11,000 people receive an incapacity benefit through their employer. Nationally, that is a limited group. Inside one household, the effect can still be substantial. These workers are often managing illness, disability or reduced earning capacity. A lower net payment will not feel like a technical correction.
Why the payment route mattered
The change follows the Supreme Court judgment of 15 November 2024, ECLI:NL:HR:2024:1657. The case concerned a WGA benefit. The Court found unjustified unequal treatment between someone paid directly by UWV and someone receiving the same kind of benefit through an employer.
The legislature had two possible routes. It could extend the favourable labour-tax-credit treatment to direct UWV payments, or remove it from employer-paid benefits. The government chose the second route. From 2027, the labour tax credit will apply only to qualifying income from current employment, not to the covered benefit component.
That decision brings the financial result into the employment relationship. The employer did not design the rule, but the payslip carries the message. A worker may see lower net income while gross salary, benefit entitlement and an existing employer supplement remain unchanged.
More than a tax-table update
The operational change is not simply a higher withholding percentage. Where current-employment pay and former-employment benefit income are paid together, employers must report them through two separate inkomstenverhoudingen. The labour tax credit belongs only in the record for current employment.
Payroll software must also combine the white and green payroll-tax tables using the method prescribed by the Belastingdienst. That requires correct classification of each payment. A wage supplement, a WGA benefit and ordinary salary may pass through one payroll process, but they do not carry the same tax character.
The official worked example shows why preparation matters. On monthly total pay of €3,000, including a €2,000 WGA benefit, the changed method produces an illustrative net difference of €374.50. The example uses 2026 tables, so it does not set the final January 2027 amount. It does show that the effect can be large enough to disturb a household budget.
A small company may outsource payroll. It cannot outsource the employee relationship. The payroll office can configure the records and calculation, but the employer will usually receive the first worried call. Waiting until January would turn a statutory change into a preventable trust problem.
The conversation before the calculation
Start with identification, not estimates. An employer needs to know whether any covered WAO, WAZ, Wajong, IVA, WGA, qualifying Ziektewet, Wamil, BNO, WTV or Toeslagenwet payment passes through payroll. An eigenrisicodrager arrangement deserves particular attention because the payment flow may sit close to the employer’s own administration.
The next useful step is a written exchange with the payroll provider. Ask about the split between income records, allocation of the labour tax credit, treatment of supplements and review of the first 2027 payroll run. A general assurance that the software will be updated is less useful than confirmation of how affected employees will be handled.
Communication should separate three matters: gross entitlement, payroll withholding and net payment. If those points blur, employees may believe the employer has cut their salary or benefit. The explanation can remain simple. Gross amounts may be unchanged, while the tax credit applied through payroll is lower because the benefit no longer counts toward it.
That distinction also protects the employer from making a rushed promise. A request to preserve the former net amount may be understandable, but compensation is not automatic. Any voluntary adjustment would be a separate wage-cost, contractual and payroll decision. Sympathy should not replace a clear calculation of recurring cost and tax treatment.
The household effect may go further
Some parents may also face a change in the income-dependent combination tax credit, known as IACK. From 2027, the affected benefit component will no longer count as employment income for that credit. For someone receiving IACK through a provisional assessment, the Belastingdienst says that assessment should be amended at the beginning of 2027.
Payroll communication has a clear limit here. An employer can explain the changed payslip and identify the payment components. The employee’s final income-tax position depends on wider household circumstances. The same applies to a personal decision about a provisional assessment. The payroll desk should inform without pretending to know the whole household file.
Direct UWV payments keep their existing treatment. The change concerns the labour-tax-credit calculation for the covered benefits paid through an employer or by an eigenrisicodrager. That distinction belongs in the explanation, especially where employees compare their situation with someone receiving the benefit through another route.
Back at the January payroll table, the best outcome is not that nobody notices. It is that the figures have been checked, the affected worker already understands the reason, and the employer can answer calmly. A technically correct payslip is essential. In this case, a well-prepared conversation is part of getting payroll right.
If this change affects your payroll, review the calculation and employee communication before the first January 2027 pay run.
The data, sourcing, and analysis behind this article were conducted by Linda Pavan Geraedts. AI was not used to identify sources, build the factual basis, or produce the analytical judgment contained here. AI was used only as a drafting aid. The final English text was personally reviewed, edited, and approved by Linda Pavan Geraedts before publication.
References
- Geen arbeidskorting meer bij uitkering via werkgever en loon: gevolgen voor werknemers · Salaris Vanmorgen
- Belastingdienst - Final payroll rule from 1 January 2027
- Rijksoverheid - Affected population and policy rationale
- Rechtspraak - Supreme Court origin of the change
- Rechtspraak - Current judicial follow-up before the 2027 rule
- Belastingdienst - IACK and payroll-tax-credit administration
- Rijksoverheid
