In which country do you have to pay social insurance contributions?

If you are a Dutch employer and your employee works exclusively in Belgium, your employee will normally be insured under the Belgian social insurance system. In Belgium, you pay Belgian social security contributions to the the National Office for Social Security (Rijksdienst voor sociale zekerheid; RSZ). You need to register with the RSZ as an employer and register your employee with them. 

Every wage or salary payment you make to your employee is subject to deductions for employee’s and employer’s contributions. These consist of standard and special contributions. The standard contributions are divided up as follows: 

• an employee’s contribution of 13.07% of the employee’s gross wages or salary, and 
• an employer’s contribution of 25% of the employee’s gross wages or salary

The special contribution is an additional amount that sometimes needs to be deducted from the employee’s wages or salary. Whether or not this amount needs to be deducted depends on the amount the employee earns and your situation as an employer and/or your employee’s situation. In Belgium, a wide variety of special contributions apply. The various contributions you deduct from your employee’s wages or salary have to be paid to the RSZ after the end of the quarter concerned.

Administrative matters

In Belgium, there are also other administrative matters you need to take care of, such as the payment of PAYE tax and preparation of payslips. We would advise you to authorise someone to take care of your administrative matters on your behalf. In Belgium, a representative of this kind is called a ‘mandataris’. To authorise a representative for this purpose, you need to conclude a written agreement with a social service provider. However, you can also take care of your administrative matters yourself if your prefer.

If you are a Dutch employer and your employee works exclusively in Germany, your employee will normally be insured under the German social insurance system. You are responsible for the payment of your employee’s social insurance contributions, which you have to pay to the Krankenkasse. To do so, you need to apply to the Bundesagentur für Arbeit for a Betriebsnummer.

If your employee is insured under the German social insurance system, you need to designate a representative in Germany. A representative can be the employee themself or a third party, such as a tax adviser. The representative will keep salary records in German for future checks.

If you are a Belgian or German employer and your employee works exclusively in the Netherlands, your employee will normally be insured under the Dutch social insurance system. This means you pay Dutch social insurance contributions and tax and/or national insurance contributions to the Dutch Tax Administration (Belastingdienst). As an employer, you need to register your company and your employee with the Belastingdienst.

Social insurance schemes

Dutch social insurance is made up of the schemes for employee insurance, national insurance andZvw health insurance.

Tax and/or national insurance contributions and wage tax

You pay tax and/or national insurance contributions for your employee. This is made up of contributions for employee insurance and national insurance and a Zvw healthcare contribution. You may also need to pay wage tax to the Dutch Tax Administration (Belastingdienst). Wage tax is an advance on income tax. In order to pay wage tax, you need a payroll tax number. If your employee is starting work in the Netherlands for the first time, you can apply to the Belastingdienst for a payroll tax number using the form ‘Registration form Foreign companies’ on the Belastingdienst website.

Administrative matters

In the Netherlands, there are also other administrative matters you need to take care of, such as the preparation of payslips. We would recommend that you have this done by an administration office, especially if your company does not have a branch in the Netherlands. However, you may also do your administration yourself if you prefer.