Picture a founder who has handed daily management to the next generation. He no longer opens the office, manages staff, or calls every customer. Yet once a month, he reviews the bank position, approves a large payment, and speaks to an important client. His diary says retired. The BV may tell a more complicated story.
That tension sat at the centre of a July 2026 judgment from Rechtbank Gelderland, ECLI:NL:RBGEL:2026:5528. The case concerned a retired DGA who argued for a customary salary of €12,000 for 2021. He referred to reduced business activity and said he worked one day a month. The inspector applied the 2021 amount of €47,000, including the company-car benefit.
The court accepted that age could point to part-time work. It found that the founder had not explained the companies’ activities, his work, or the time spent on each company in enough detail to support the lower salary.
The current number is different
The €47,000 in the judgment belongs to 2021. It is not today’s figure. Belastingdienst guidance states that the customary salary for 2026 is tested against the highest of three benchmarks: the salary for the most comparable employment, the salary of the highest-paid employee in the company or a connected company, and €58,000.
The €58,000 figure is one part of that test. A lower amount may fit where comparable employment supports it and the lower salary is made plausible. The business question is whether the company can explain the reduced salary through the work the DGA actually performs.
The Gelderland judgment carries a clear lesson about informal retirement. A founder may have stepped back honestly and substantially. Yet when the transition lives mainly in conversation, the payroll position becomes difficult to sustain. A pension date changes personal life. It does not rewrite the company’s records.
One day can still carry responsibility
Hours matter, but they are not the whole measure of a founder’s role. One day spent on routine administration differs from one day spent approving finance, negotiating a contract, or deciding whether the company should sell an investment. Limited time can still carry substantial authority.
This is where owner-managed businesses often become untidy. The founder stops receiving a full salary but remains a director. Someone else runs operations, while the bank still requires the founder’s approval. Customer contact becomes occasional, although the largest client still calls that person when something goes wrong.
A sound salary position starts with an honest description of what remains. That description can cover tasks, hours, decision rights, customer involvement, and the person who has taken over daily work. It also needs a credible comparison with employment that resembles the reduced role.
Writing “one day per month” beside the payroll calculation is too thin when the rest of the company still shows executive influence.
The company structure must match the story
The question becomes harder when the founder owns a holding BV above an operating company. Which entity receives the work? Is the founder acting for the holding, the operating company, or several participations? Management agreements and invoices matter, but daily reality matters too.
A Belastingdienst Kennisgroepen position published in July 2026 considered a specific structure involving a holding BV, a 6% interest in a work BV, and a genuine contract for services. In that structure, the individual worked only for the holding. The customary-salary analysis therefore sat at holding level.
The position concerns a defined set of facts, yet its practical value reaches further. A group should not describe the same work differently in payroll, contracts, invoices, and board records. Where a holding charges management fees while the founder personally directs the operating company, the arrangement needs a closer reading. Labels do not settle where work is performed.
For a small family group, this is governance in its most concrete form. Everyone involved needs to know who decides, who advises, who represents the business, and which company pays for that work. Retirement often blurs these roles precisely when the records need greater clarity.
Payroll, dividends, and cash must agree
A low DGA salary is not an isolated payroll choice. It affects personal income tax, company liquidity, and the cash that appears available for dividends or other spending. A later salary correction can arrive after that cash has already moved elsewhere.
Consider the retired founder again. He has planned household income around pension payments and a modest salary. The BV has treated retained cash as working capital. A later salary correction can disturb both plans, while tax interest adds another cost.
The weakness is rarely just the number. Payroll, cash planning, and the founder’s real role have often been built on different versions of the company.
A calm response starts with a dated review of the transition. Company records can identify which duties ended, which remained, who received delegated authority, and how the salary was determined. Board minutes, calendars, agreements, management invoices, benefits, and payroll entries should support the same account.
Retirement is rarely a single event inside an owner-managed BV. It is usually a gradual transfer of decisions, relationships, and responsibility. Dutch tax rules allow the facts of that transition to matter. They expect those facts to be visible.
The founder may work less, and a lower salary may fit that reality. The decisive step is not writing retirement into the diary. It is making sure the company has genuinely learned to operate without the old role.
Need to review the DGA’s role, salary basis, and payroll file? We can help bring the records into line
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
- Gepensioneerde dga ontkomt niet aan gebruikelijk loon - Taxence
- Rechtspraak - Retired DGA, continued activity and proof for a lower customary salary
- Belastingdienst - Current 2026 customary-salary threshold and routes to a lower amount
- Belastingdienst Kennisgroepen - Holding and operating-company allocation of DGA work
- Wettenbank - Statutory basis for customary salary
- Rijksoverheid, Ministry of Finance
