The founder checks the bank account at month-end. No salary payment went out. A client invoice arrived late, payroll was postponed, and the employee remains under contract. It is tempting to call this a month without payroll. Yet the employment relationship has not disappeared with the payment.
That is the practical distinction between a Dutch nihilaangifte and nulaangifte. The Belastingdienst requires an employer to submit the payroll-tax return on time, even when no wages or payroll taxes are due for that period. The right return depends on whether anyone remained employed.
A nihilaangifte applies when the employer had no employees in service during the filing period. No employee details are entered. A nulaangifte applies when employees remained in service but received no wages. Their details stay in the return, while wages, payroll taxes and paid hours are entered as zero. The relevant insurance indicators remain visible as well.
The employment reality comes first
The two Dutch terms look like neighbouring technical labels. In fact, they describe different company realities.
One means the business had no employees in service. The other means employment continued without a wage payment in that period. The useful test is whether the contract, payroll system, bank account and employer records tell the same story.
Small companies rarely run on a perfect calendar. A new employee may start near month-end and receive the first salary later. A seasonal business may retain staff through an unusual gap. An owner-managed BV may pay its director-major shareholder, or DGA, on an annual schedule. Cash pressure may delay payment while the wage obligation remains.
These situations cannot all become an empty payroll month. When some employees received wages and others did not, the employer includes them all in the return. For those without a payment, the return records the applicable zero amounts and the correct insurance information.
That detail protects continuity. Payroll data do more than calculate tax. UWV and municipalities use them when dealing with income and benefits. Paid-hours data can also affect payroll-cost benefits and the duration of employee benefits. A casual zero can therefore travel further than the employer expects.
Zero can reveal cash pressure
Return to the founder waiting for the client invoice. A nulaangifte may correctly record that no wage was paid, but it does not settle the unpaid salary or explain the company’s cash position. The ledger may still carry a wage obligation. The employee still expects payment. The bank balance merely shows that cash did not move.
This makes payroll reporting useful management information. A zero-wage period can reveal a timing issue, a processing delay, an agreed salary pattern or deeper liquidity pressure. Those are different business conditions. They call for different conversations with the employee, payroll provider and bookkeeper.
When payroll records zero while the accounts show an unpaid wage, both records may be understandable on their own. They still need to connect. Otherwise management reads two versions of the month. One suggests that nothing happened. The other shows a liability waiting to be paid.
Outsourcing payroll does not remove the employer’s responsibility. The Belastingdienst holds the employer responsible even when an accountant or payroll provider submits the return. A provider can process what it receives. The director knows who started, who left, who remained employed, whose pay was delayed, and whether hours reflect paid work, paid absence or unpaid leave.
A short month-end conversation can prevent a long correction trail. Who remained employed? Who was paid? Which hours were paid? Did anyone start or leave? Does the payroll return match the ledger and bank account? This is not heavy governance. It is ordinary care around people’s income records.
Dormant payroll needs an ending
A different issue appears when a company no longer employs anyone but continues filing nihilaangiften month after month. The return may remain correct, but repetition should prompt a decision. Is the pause temporary, or has the business genuinely stopped being an employer?
The Belastingdienst allows an employer to deregister when it has no personnel, pays no wages and expects that position to last at least twelve months. Returns continue until the tax authority confirms the date from which they are no longer required. The final payslip is not always the administrative end of employment activity.
For a DGA, another boundary matters. The 2026 payroll-tax manual recognises that an annual salary pattern can produce nulaangiften in periods without payment. That periodic treatment sits alongside the separate annual customary-wage assessment.
For 2026, the customary wage generally considers the highest of the most comparable employment wage, the highest employee wage within the company or a connected company, or €58,000. A substantiated lower comparable wage may apply where the facts support it.
The DGA’s payroll calendar, annual wage assessment and company cash planning should meet before year-end, not after it. A technically correct zero during the year can coexist with an annual salary question that still needs to be resolved.
The founder in our opening scene does not need drama. The business needs an honest close of the month. The employee list, wage obligation, paid hours, bank movement and return should describe one recognisable company.
Zero is a number, but never an absence of meaning. In payroll, it may describe an empty workforce, an unpaid period, an annual salary rhythm or a company waiting for cash. The employer’s task is to know which one it is.
If a zero payroll month does not match your contracts, ledger or cash records, we can check the filing before errors spread
The data, sourcing, and analysis behind this article were conducted by Paolo Maria Pavan. 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 Paolo Maria Pavan before publication.
