14 jan Top 10 changes for employers 2025

1.      Increase legal minimum hourly wage

The statutory minimum wage is indexed twice a year, on January 1 and July 1. The statutory gross minimum hourly wage for employees aged 21 or older was increased to €14.06 on January 1, 2025.

2.      Enforcement of false self-employment as of 2025

As of January 1, 2025, the enforcement moratorium on employment relationships has been completely lifted. The Tax Authorities can therefore once again fully enforce an incorrect qualification of an employment relationship and impose correction obligations and additional tax assessments.

Please note! The Tax Authorities can only go back to January 1, 2025, unless there is malicious intent.

In principle, the Tax and Customs Administration will start in 2025 with a company visit during which a discussion is held with the client about the hiring of self-employed persons and external personnel. Where necessary, the client will be alerted to attention for the qualification of the employment relationships and possible risks of false self-employment. In this way the client is warned. The Tax Authorities can also opt for an audit, for example if it is estimated that there are major risks or if the client works or continues to work with pseudo self-employed persons.

Tip! For the calendar year 2025, employers and employees will not yet be charged default and penalty fines if they can prove that they are taking steps against false self-employment.

The Tax Office will no longer approve new model agreements as of September 6, 2024. However, all current approved model agreements have been automatically extended until the end of 2029. However, the Tax Office can revoke a model agreement if it no longer complies with laws, regulations and case law or if it turns out that the conditions of the model agreement are not or cannot be met.

Tip! If you want the Tax Authorities to assess an employment relationship, use the form Request for pre-consultation assessment employment relationship. The Checklist for prior consultation to assess the working relationship contains the minimum information you must include in your request.

3.      The work-related expenses scheme and standard amounts increased

The work-related expenses scheme allows you, as an employer, to offer or provide various tax-free reimbursements to your staff. If the allowances remain within the fixed budget, then the employer does not have to pay tax on this either. In 2025 the fixed budget will be slightly increased to 2% (in 2024 still 1.92%) of the wage bill, up to an amount of € 400,000. Insofar as the wage bill is higher, the fixed budget on the excess remains 1.18%, as in 2024.

For the additional costs associated with working from home, you can – subject to conditions – give an untaxed allowance to your employee. This untaxed reimbursement will be €2.40 per day in 2025. The standard compensation for the value of meals in company canteens (or similar areas) or during staff parties at the company location will be € 3.95 per meal in 2025. The standard compensation for accommodation at the workplace will increase to € 6.80 per day in 2025.

4.      Customary salary and volunteer allowance 2025 same as 2024

The standard amount for the customary salary in 2025 is equal to the standard amount in 2024 and amounts to € 56,000 per year. After years of increasing the standard amount (in 2023, for example, it was € 51,000 and in 2022 it was € 48,000), you therefore do not have to take a higher standard amount into account in 2025. Nevertheless, the customary salary may still be higher in 2025 than in 2024, depending on the salaries from the most comparable employment and the salaries of the highest-earning employee of your company or related companies.

The maximum untaxed volunteer compensation in 2025 will also remain the same as in 2024, namely a maximum of €2,100 per year and €210 per month. The untaxed volunteer compensation must remain within the maximum amounts and the volunteer must not perform the work as a profession for designated, non-commercial organizations. The Tax Office assumes that the work is not performed by way of profession if the maximum hourly compensation in 2025 is €5.60. For volunteers under 21 years of age, this maximum hourly compensation in 2025 is €3.30.

5.      Additional taxable benefit for new car without CO2 emissions and final levy for used delivery van up

The additional tax rate for new cars without CO2 emissions (including fully electric cars) will increase in 2025 to 17% up to a list price of € 30,000 and to 22% above that. The year 2025 is the last year in which a discount applies to such new cars. The additional tax rate for new cars with CO2 emissions of more than 0 grams per kilometer will not change in 2025. It will remain, as in previous years, at 22%.

An employer can buy off the addition for the private use of a van used alternately by several employees by applying a final levy. The amount of this final levy will no longer be €300 per year in 2025, but has been increased to €438 per year (€36.50 per month).

Please note! The untaxed travel compensation for business travel expenses with own transport, including commuting, is the same in 2025 as in 2024 and amounts to € 0.23/km.

6.      Expanded WBSO

Through the Wet Bevordering Speur- en Ontwikkelingswerk (WBSO), employers receive a compensation for the costs of innovative work. The employer deducts the compensation granted from the payroll tax to be paid. Various percentages of the WBSO have been increased effective January 1, 2025. As of 2025, a percentage of 36% applies for costs up to €380,000 and 16% for the excess. For startups, a percentage of 50% applies for costs up to € 380,000 as of 2025.

7.      Changes to the Salary Domain Allowances Act

The Wet tegemoetkomingen loondomein (Wtl) contributes to encourage employers to hire and retain people with a vulnerable position. As of 2025, the Wtl includes only the wage cost benefit (LKV). The low-income benefit (LIV) has been abolished as of January 1, 2025. Payment of the 2024 LIV will still take place in July/August 2025.

Another change is the phasing out of the LKV for older workers. For employment relationships that began before January 1, 2024, the LKV for older employees of €3.05 per hour worked with a maximum of €6,000 per calendar year will remain in place until the end of the maximum three-year term. However, for employment relationships that began on or after January 1, 2024, the LKV has been reduced as of January 1, 2025 to € 1.35 per hour worked with a maximum of € 2,600 per calendar year.

Please note! As of January 1, 2026, you are no longer entitled to recieve LKV for these employment relationships. However, the LKV 2025 will still be paid for these employment relationships in 2026.

Furthermore, as of 2025, the criteria of the LKV reemployed employee with disabilities have been expanded. For an employee who during the waiting period of the WIA fully or partially resumes his own work or fully or partially starts working for you in another position, you will also be entitled to this LKV from 2025.

8.      Slower revision of low Awf contribution to high Awf contribution as of 2025

The differentiated premium for the General Unemployment Fund (Awf) consists of a high and low Awf contribution. As an employer, you may apply a low Awf contribution if a number of conditions are met. If you do not meet these conditions, you will pay a high Awf contribution. The low contribution in 2025 is 2.74%, the high contribution is 7.74%.

In certain situations, you must retroactively revise a low Awf contribution to a high Awf contribution. This is the case, for example, if the paid hours of an employee for whom you applied the low Awf contribution are more than 30% higher than the contract hours in a year. For the year 2024, you will then only still have to apply the high Awf contribution for employees with an employment contract of less than 35 hours per week on average. Check in early 2025 whether you need to apply such a revision for the year 2024. For the year 2025, you are less likely to need to apply such a revision. You then only need to do so for employees with employment contracts averaging 30 hours or less per week.

Please note! The low Awf contribution must also be revised to the high Awf contribution if a new employee resigns or is laid off within two months of starting employment. This revision does not depend on the number of contract hours and thus applies to all contracts.

9.      Changes to the 30% scheme

The 30% scheme is a tax regulation whereby, under strict conditions, up to 30% of the salary may be paid tax-free to personnel recruited from abroad. This regulation was to be made more flexible, but a large part of the reduction has been reversed with effect from 2025. This means that if the strict conditions are met, in 2025 and 2026 the percentage of up to 30% may still be applied as usual. From 2027 this percentage will be reduced to 27%, unless you already applied the 30% scheme for the employee before 2024. In that case, you may apply the 30% rate for the entire 60-month period.

In 2025, the 30% scheme may be applied over a salary up to a maximum of €246,000 (in 2024 this was still €233,000). Incidentally, this maximum does not apply in 2025 if you already applied the 30% scheme for the employee prior to 2023.

In 2025, the salary standard applied in the 30% scheme is €46,660. For incoming employees who are younger than 30 and have obtained their master’s degree, the salary standard in 2025 is €35,468. Both amounts will be increased to €50,436 and €38,338, respectively, starting in 2027. These are the amounts based on those in effect in 2024, and they will still be indexed as of 2027. Incidentally, this increased salary from 2027 does not apply to those who already applied the 30% scheme before 2024.

Please note! Employees using the 30% scheme did not have to pay taxes in box 2 and box 3 on foreign capital income until 2024. This is also known as the partial foreign tax liability. This facility expired as of 2025. This does not apply to situations in which the 30% ruling was already applied before 2024. In these situations, the facility remains in effect through 2026. For employees for whom the foreign partial tax liability expires as of 2025, you will no longer be able to use the facility as of 2025 to reconcile the wage tax/ national insurance contributions you must withhold with the income tax and any national insurance contributions your employee must pay.

10.  Mandatory reporting of business and commuting employees no later than June 30, 2025

Employers with 100 or more employees are required to report the business and commuting traffic of their employees as of July 1, 2024. This obligation is part of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management’s Environment Act and is known as the “Work-related Passenger Mobility Reporting Obligation,” or WPM for short.

For example, these employers must report the total number of kilometers traveled by employees for business and commuting purposes, as well as the annual total of kilometers, broken down by type of vehicle and fuel type. Data for 2024 can be submitted starting Jan. 15, 2025, and must be submitted by June 30, 2025. In 2026, reporting for the entire year 2025 is mandatory.