Imagine a founder hiring her first employee near the end of August. The contract has started, but the first salary will arrive in September. Nothing leaves the bank account that month, so August feels like an empty payroll period. It is not.
The issue surfaced this week through Salaris Vanmorgen, which pointed to section 13.2.3 of the Belastingdienst’s 2026 Handboek Loonheffingen. The handbook distinguishes a nihilaangifte from a nulaangifte. The difference rests on one concrete question: did the business have employees during the filing period?
If no employees worked for the business, the employer files a nihilaangifte. No employee data are entered. If employees remained employed but received no wage, the employer files a nulaangifte. Their details stay in the return, while wages, payroll taxes and paid hours are recorded as zero.
The person behind the zero
This sounds like a small piece of Dutch payroll vocabulary. It carries more weight in practice. A zero amount can describe very different company realities.
One business had no workers at all. Another had a worker whose employment had started, but whose first salary fell into the next period. A third paid most staff while one employee received nothing that month. In that mixed return, the unpaid employee still appears with the relevant details, zero amounts and the correct insurance indicators.
A payroll return is therefore more than a payment form. It records who was connected to the company as an employee during that period. A missing bank payment does not erase that relationship.
Return to the new employee in August. Her contract, start date, payroll administration and tax return should describe the same relationship. If the return omits her because no salary was transferred, the company’s records begin telling different stories before the first payslip has even been issued.
Where a quiet month creates noise later
The human consequence can appear much later. UWV uses information from payroll-tax returns in the Polisadministratie when calculating day wages and benefit levels. For WW and Ziektewet assessments, it may also ask employers about hours, sickness days and the end of employment.
A zero entry does not settle a worker’s benefit assessment on its own. The quality of the payroll record still matters beyond the tax return. An incomplete record can lead to questions when a former or sick employee needs the employment history to be clear.
Timing creates another avoidable risk. The Belastingdienst treats a return rejected because of an error as unaccepted. The employer must correct and submit it again. A founder may believe payroll is finished because the software displayed “sent”, while the tax administration still sees an outstanding filing.
The standard late-filing rule adds a modest but avoidable cost. A return received more than seven calendar days after the deadline can attract an €83 penalty. The amount is not the central issue. The useful question is whether someone checks that each return was accepted, including months when nothing was payable.
Stopping payroll takes a formal ending
Small employers often assume that the final employee’s departure closes the payroll obligation automatically. The Belastingdienst uses a more formal line. An employer with no staff, no wage payments and an expectation that this will continue for at least 12 months may report deregistration for payroll-tax purposes.
Returns continue until the Belastingdienst confirms the date from which filing is no longer required. The administration says it will notify the employer within three weeks after deregistration. Until then, an apparently inactive employer number can still carry an active filing calendar.
A nihilaangifte needs the same careful reading. It shows that no employees were present in that period. The filing obligation itself ends only when the Belastingdienst confirms that position. The return category and the formal end of the filing duty are separate matters.
Director-shareholders face another separation. The handbook recognises that a DGA receiving an annual salary may have monthly periods without an actual wage payment. A nulaangifte can fit such a period. The annual customary-salary assessment remains a separate question.
For 2026, the Belastingdienst states that the customary salary is generally the highest of the comparable-employment salary, the salary of the highest-paid employee in the company or a connected company, and €58,000. A lower comparable salary may apply when the employer can substantiate it. Monthly payment timing and the annual salary position must therefore be read together.
A short check with a long value
The strongest response is not another complicated procedure. It is a brief monthly comparison of the people employed, the contracts in force, the payroll run, wage statements, bank payments and the submitted return. Each zero should have a plain explanation that matches those records.
For the founder with the August starter, that explanation is simple: employment began in August, the first salary was paid in September, and the August return preserved the employee data with zero amounts. The records agree. There is no mystery to resolve months later.
A quiet bank account can tempt an owner to treat payroll as inactive. Dutch reporting rules ask a better question: what was the employment reality during that month? Once the owner answers it honestly, the right return usually follows. The zero then stops being an empty number and becomes what it should be: a clear account of the people still connected to the business.
Need a second check on a zero-pay month, employer-file closure or payroll record? We can review the facts with you
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.
