Some people come to the Netherlands for a job, while some of their partners carry on working remotely for theirs, which is based in another country.

But when that happens, the foreign employer has new obligations around administration and withholding tax – and this is the moment when it can be good to involve an expert.

“International companies that are not based in the Netherlands could have employees working in the Netherlands for a number of reasons” says Sandro, a payroll expert at tax advice firm Blue Umbrella.

“For example, people move here with a 30% ruling [tax break for scarce talent] and their partner keeps on working for a US company. The company says: you are working from home, but ‘from home’ suddenly means working from home in the Netherlands.”

Staying longer

Research by the Dutch statistics office CBS earlier this year found that employees coming to the Netherlands are more likely to stay longer if they have children and if their partner has a paid job. A report from the Advisory Council on Migration in the summer suggested that the partners of knowledge migrants could help fill job vacancies in the Netherlands.

But since learning Dutch is not an instant process, and Dutch recruitment can be challenging, Blue Umbrella sees may people continue to work for their old international employers.

That means payroll administration needs to be set up, Dutch taxes need to be paid monthly to the Belastingdienst, and foreign companies also need to deal with the fact that exchange rates can vary. Setting up a Dutch bank account is tricky for non-resident entities and there are bank fees involved with transferring money.

A solution

Blue Umbrella has one solution – the PoBo (“payment on behalf of”) package. Like a deposit account, this holds several months of salary and fees, and then Blue Umbrella ensures the worker is paid the correct amount on time, payroll administration is up to date and the tax bill is settled.

“Besides the fact that you as an employer have lower transfer fees, it’s also just easier to transfer one large amount and then we do the specifications,” says Sandro. “We specify the payment reference, we use the right bank account number to the Dutch tax office. It makes it easier.”

The PoBo service also prevents annoying mix-ups such as companies that do not realise every payment to the tax office needs a new reference number.

Reference numbers

“What goes wrong when they pay themselves is sometimes forgetting a payment reference, which sounds silly, but every month the payment reference is different,” Sandro says. “They cannot just pay the tax office: they really have to mention their payment. And not paying on time is another thing. We do see that people receive fines for paying too late.”

Blue Umbrella’s PoBo service costs an additional €25 a month on top of the €89 a month standard payroll service – and is being used by clients from America, Germany, Denmark and other European countries.

“Employees like to get paid their salary on time – although you hear from them quicker if it doesn’t happen!” says Sandro. “And their employers like the simplicity.”

Contact Blue Umbrella for advice on all of your tax and business affairs in the Netherlands