I can hear the question before the spreadsheet opens. A founder has a BV, sales are uneven, wages around the company keep rising, and the year is already halfway gone. The question sounds simple: can the CEO take less salary this year?
The 2026 Belastingdienst Handboek Loonheffingen brings that question back to its first step. The customary-wage rule is aimed at someone who works for a company or cooperative in which that person, possibly together with a fiscal partner, has an aanmerkelijk belang, a substantial interest.
That gate matters. A hired external CEO does not fall inside article 12a Wet op de loonbelasting 1964 just because the title sounds powerful. A founder, director and shareholder often does. So the payroll conversation starts with ownership and work, not with the bank balance.
Start with the gate
In everyday Dutch business life, the 5 percent line is often where the real question begins. Shares, rights to acquire shares, profit rights, liquidation rights, and voting rights can all count. Partner positions can count too. For a micro-BV, this is not exotic planning. It is the ownership table, the shareholders’ agreement, and the work done on Monday morning.
Once that gate is passed, 2026 is not a free-choice year. The Belastingdienst states that the customary wage must be at least the highest of three figures. Those are the wage from the most comparable employment, the wage of the highest-paid employee at the company or a connected company, and €58,000.
The practical mistake is to treat €58,000 as the only number. A senior employee in the BV, or in a connected BV, can lift the comparison. Market wages also move. CBS reported that collective-agreement wages per hour, including special payments, were 4.5 percent higher in the first quarter of 2026 than a year earlier. In private companies, the increase was 4.9 percent. Old benchmark notes can become stale quickly.
Cash is not the benchmark
This is where many founders feel the tax rule rub against reality. CBS reported negative entrepreneur confidence across all sectors covered by the survey at the start of the second quarter of 2026. A cautious founder may want to keep cash inside the BV, pay suppliers first, delay salary, or leave room for stock, staff, software, rent, and a lender.
In a small company, cash is not an abstraction. It decides whether the founder hires, waits, repairs, or sleeps badly. But the customary-wage rule does not follow what the owner prefers to withdraw. The Hoge Raad described article 12a as a rule for taxing a business-like wage for DGA work and countering unwanted salary constructions.
The better question is practical. What would the market pay for this actual work, with this time commitment, responsibility, sector, complexity, and decision power, if the ownership interest did not exist? Part-time work can matter. It simply does not, by itself, take the wage below €58,000. The comparison still has to carry the weight.
When lower pay can hold
A lower DGA salary can be defensible. The cleanest route is a lower market wage for the actual role. A founder who works limited hours in a simple company has a different comparison than a full-time director managing staff, financing, commercial risk, and daily decisions.
There is also the narrow €5,000 rule. If the customary wage for all relevant work is not higher than €5,000 and no wage is paid, no fictitious wage has to be taken into account at year-end. That is not a per-BV trick. Belastingdienst Kennisgroep position KG:204:2026:6 confirms that connected bodies can require a joint look at the work. That included two BVs wholly owned by the same natural person.
Start-ups need care. The old innovative start-up relaxation has gone for normal 2026 cases. The Handboek still recognises that a starting business may temporarily use a lower wage, usually for no more than three years, when the start-up phase makes the customary wage unaffordable. Heavy investment or low cash flow can matter. Calling the company a start-up is not enough.
Continuity needs proof too. In Gerechtshof Den Haag, ECLI:NL:GHDHA:2025:2591, the court accepted €7,500 rather than the inspector’s €25,000 for 2022. Paying the higher amount would have endangered continuity by using liquidity, stock, or business assets needed for the business. That is a continuity story, not a general loss-company exemption.
Make payroll match the story
Back at the founder’s table, the conversation changes. The salary question no longer sits only in the board minutes. It moves into payroll, the current account, benefits, expenses, dividends, management fees, and the bank account.
If the DGA receives less wage than the customary wage, the withholding agent must process the difference as wage in the payroll administration. It must calculate wage tax on that amount. The Handboek calls the difference fictitious wage because the BV has not actually paid it out.
Article 13a Wet LB treats that excess as enjoyed at the end of the calendar year, or earlier if employment ends. Employers file payroll tax returns monthly or every four weeks. A position that looked convenient in February can turn into a correction problem in December if the evidence never existed.
A careful BV also looks at withdrawals. A lower wage position becomes fragile when the same file shows rising current-account debt, dividend distributions, or other withdrawals. The company cannot plead payroll poverty while value leaves through another door.
Ask before December
Founders who incorporate during the year have another timing point. Belastingdienst Kennisgroep position KG:204:2026:8 says the customary-wage rule applies only after the BV legally exists through notarial incorporation. That pre-incorporation work is not tax-free. It simply sits outside this specific article 12a payroll question.
Where a lower wage is material or fragile, advance consultation with the Belastingdienst can be sensible. The checklist for vooroverleg asks for the nature and scope of the work, comparable wages, the highest employee wage in the company or a connected company, and the arguments for no wage or a lower wage. The tax authority says it aims to respond within eight weeks, unless more time is needed.
The 2026 position reads as a call for calm discipline. A low DGA salary is possible. It has to match ownership, work, market comparison, group wages, cash reality, and the payroll ledger.
The founder who asks the question early has options. The founder who waits until the final payroll run often has fewer. In a small BV, that difference is not paperwork. It is trust in the numbers before someone else tests them.
Want to check whether your DGA salary position is defensible before payroll closes?
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
- Belastingdienst - Applicability gate: DGA or substantial-interest holder
- Belastingdienst - 2026 customary-wage benchmark
- Belastingdienst Kennisgroepen - Connected companies and highest-paid employee
- Belastingdienst - Payroll filing cadence
- Rechtspraak - Court signal: narrow financial-distress acceptance
- Rechtspraak - Supreme Court purpose and comparison method
- Belastingdienst Kennisgroepen - Pre-incorporation BV period
- Belastingdienst - Vooroverleg and evidence checklist
