A founder steps back after illness. A spouse takes over the customers and staff. The accountant handles the books. Yet tax letters still reach the founder, because only that person knows the history, holds the authority or can explain an old company decision.
That may feel like occasional help rather than work. The Dutch customary-salary rule asks a more exact question.
The 2026 Belastingdienst framework starts with whether a substantial-interest holder performs work for the company or cooperative. Two Kennisgroep positions published in July add an important point for holding structures: contracts, management invoices and the actual route of the work must describe the same relationship.
This is where a quiet founder role can become a payroll issue. Answering one email does not automatically create a salary of €58,000. A pattern of administration can show that the founder still performs necessary company work.
The first question is the role
Small companies rarely divide work as neatly as their organisation charts suggest. The founder may no longer manage the shop, advise clients or supervise staff. Still, that person might approve payments, review payroll, speak with the tax authority, sign a VAT request or settle a disagreement with the accountant.
I read those acts as more than administrative fragments when they carry authority that nobody else has. They show where responsibility still sits. The number of hours matters, but so do the nature of the decisions and the company that benefits from them.
This distinction matters when the BV has recorded a low or nil DGA salary. That payroll position is not merely a cash-saving choice. It also describes the founder’s role. If payroll says inactive while correspondence and signatures show continuing involvement, the two stories no longer fit.
Health limitations deserve care and respect. They can change duties, hours and commercial value. A medical situation alone does not set the payroll result. The company still needs a coherent account of what work remained, what stopped and how responsibility moved to somebody else.
Salary is a separate calculation
Once work is established, the next question concerns the amount. For 2026, the customary salary is generally the highest of three measures: pay for the most comparable employment, pay of the highest-paid employee in the company or an affiliated company, and €58,000.
That €58,000 figure attracts attention because it is clear and memorable. It is not the whole rule. A lower salary may be possible where the company can make a lower salary for the most comparable employment plausible. If the demonstrable customary salary is €5,000 or less, actual salary may be used, with that threshold considered across the relevant companies or cooperatives together.
The highest-paid employee can also alter the discussion. That person may be a spouse, co-owner or senior colleague, including someone who also holds a substantial interest. A founder working reduced hours cannot answer that benchmark merely by pointing to a shorter diary. Duties, authority, market pay and the real division of work still need comparison.
Consider the founder who now spends four hours a week on tax correspondence and banking decisions. Four hours sounds modest. Those hours may still contain the company’s final financial authority. Their value cannot be understood through time alone.
Which company receives the work?
A holding structure does not remove this question. It makes the route more important.
In a July 2026 Kennisgroep position, a genuine assignment agreement meant that the individual worked for the holding rather than personally for the operating company. The customary-salary assessment therefore remained at holding level. Another position addresses an agreement without real meaning, where the working relationship was actually with the operating company.
That difference reaches straight into the books. A management agreement may name the holding, while daily instructions, correspondence and decision-making point towards the operating BV. Management fees may follow one route, payroll another, and the work a third.
For a small group, these mismatches often develop without bad intent. The structure was created years ago, duties changed and the paperwork stayed still. Illness, succession or a temporary handover can widen the gap.
The useful review is not confined to the employment contract. Follow the work through board decisions, email authority, management invoices, intercompany entries and payroll. The aim is not to produce more paper. It is to make the existing paper honest about how the business is being run.
Year-end is too late for first thoughts
The 2026 Payroll Taxes Handbook places the enjoyment of deemed salary on 31 December for an employment relationship continuing through year-end, using an annual payroll period. That creates a practical timing problem.
A BV may preserve cash through the summer by leaving DGA payroll low. If the year’s records later show continuing work, the salary question can arrive with wage tax, payroll corrections, accounting provisions and other owner cash decisions. By then, the money may already have been used for suppliers, debt or private withdrawals.
I would rather see this question reflected in the monthly books. A short role map can connect each recurring task to the entity receiving it. Payroll can then be compared with management fees, employee pay and the commercial value of the founder’s remaining duties. Where a lower salary appears supportable, the reasoning can be dated while the facts are still fresh.
This is not a call for founders to stop answering tax letters or helping during a difficult handover. Small businesses depend on people who step in when needed. The discipline lies in recognising that necessary work leaves a financial meaning behind it.
The founder in our opening scene may genuinely have stepped back. The records should show that changed reality, including who took over authority and which duties remained. A quiet role can be perfectly credible. Silence in payroll, while the founder continues to act and decide, is harder to sustain.
Need clarity on the DGA role before payroll closes? We can review the company file and payroll position with you
The data, sourcing, and analysis behind this article were conducted by Linda 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 Linda Pavan before publication.
References
- Door verrichtte administratieve werkzaamheden sprake van gebruikelijk loon · Salaris Vanmorgen
- Belastingdienst - 2026 customary-salary rule for substantial-interest holders
- Belastingdienst Kennisgroepen - Highest-paid employee as a separate salary benchmark
- Belastingdienst Kennisgroepen - Holding and operating-company work after the July 2026 Kennisgroep update
- Belastingdienst Kennisgroepen - Real assignment agreement versus work performed for the holding
- Belastingdienst - Timing of deemed salary and year-end payroll exposure
- Rechtspraak
