In this article, you can find some change of rules in the Netherlands in 2025Q1. Please note, we only select some most important themes for general entrepreneurs. If you want to know industry-specific regulatory updates, please do not hesitate to contact us directly!
The most valuable asset of a company is its employees. What’s new about staffing?
Lower overtime cost: in 2024, if you, as an employer, hire someone with a permanent employment contract with an average weekly working hour less than 35 hours, than you have to pay the high AWf premium. This is going to change. From 2025, the threshold will drop to 30 hours. Furthermore, those employees can work up to 30% overtime without the employer having to pay the high AWf premium. However, if they work more than 30% extra hours, the high AWf premium will apply retroactively. With the new rule, employers can arrange more flexibility in arranging their personnel.
The low-income benefit (lage-inkomensvoordeel) is cancelled. With this benefit, an employer used to be able to receive compensation for wage costs when they meet certain criteria.
The minimum wage is increasing! For an employee of or older than 21 years old, the minimum hourly wage is increased to 14.06 euros.
Does your company use cars or vans for business? Or is your company planning to purchase a new car? Then you have to look at the following rules!
Zero-emission zones: from 2025, some commercial vans and trucks that are “not clean enough” will not be allowed in the city center of some municipalities, the so-called zero-emission zones. Whether and when a municipality will impose such a restriction is up to the municipality’s own discretion. From 1 January 2025, there will be 14 municipalities with zero-emission zones, such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Eindhoven, Den Haag. Some other municipalities will start this new rule at a later date. The policy will come into effect in phase, and commercial vans and trucks with lower emission classes (which means that they emit more) will be prohibited first. Do you want to know whether this new rule will affect you and what solutions you can have if you are affected? Do not hesitate to contact us for more information!
The reduction of the excise duty on petrol, diesel, and LPG will remain in effect in 2025.
From 2025 onwards, entrepreneurs can no longer use the exemption scheme for bpm (purchase tax for cars and motorcycles) when they are purchasing company vans which are not “clean” (i.e. vans that rely on petrol, diesel, or LPG). The amount of the bpm you need to pay for a company van will be determined by its amount of CO2 emissions.
Also, the fixed rate of the bpm will be increased from €440 to €667.
Are you considering using the business succession scheme? Then you’d better pick up your calculator because the scheme is changing!
By participating in the BOR, you will receive tax exemptions if you receive a business as an inheritance or gift. In the past, if you want to benefit from the scheme, you have to continue the business activity for 5 years, but from this year onwards the time restrictions will be shortened to 3 years.
Another change of the BOR- its threshold is also adjusted. In the past, you could enjoy a 100% tax exemption for the first €1,205,871 that you received, and a 83% exemption for the remaining amount. From 2025, you will have a 100% tax exemption for the first €1.5 million, and a 75% tax exemption for the remaining amount.
Of course, there are a lot of other changes regarding taxes. Take a look at the following and see whether and how the changes are affecting you:
If you are purchasing property indirectly, for example through a share transaction, you will have to pay 4% transfer tax (ovb). In the past, you didn’t need to pay such transfer tax for indirect property purchase.
There will be three tax brackets for income tax. Previously, there were only two tax brackets. Here is the new brackets and their rates: the rate in the first bracket (income up to €38,441) is 35.82%; for the second bracket (income from €38,441 to €76,817) is 37.48%, and for the third bracket (income over €76,817) is 49.50%.
The top rate for box 2 (substantial interest) is reduced from 33% to 31%. Also, the threshold is increased from €67,000 to €67,804. The lower rate remains the same as last year, 24.5%.
The SME profit exemption (mkb-winstvrijstelling) is reduced from 13.31% to 12.70%, which means that the taxable amount for SMEs is higher than last year and that SMEs will have to pay more taxes on their profits.
The tax for games of chance (e.g. betting, lottery) is increased from 30.5% to 34.2%.
We hope you enjoy this article and do not hesitate to contact us directly if you have any questions!