Creators

Hiring your first editor or assistant in the Netherlands

Updated: 2026-08-17

The first hire is the moment a channel becomes a company. It is also the moment two Dutch rules arrive at once: how the tax authority decides whether your freelancer is really an employee, and what an employment contract costs beyond the wage. Both are manageable, and both reward a decision made deliberately, before the first invoice arrives rather than after it.

The test the tax authority applies

Dutch law looks past the label on the contract at how the work actually runs. Three questions decide it:

Authority: do you direct the hours, the tools and the method?
Embedding: is the work part of your ordinary operation, alongside your own?
Substitution: may the person send someone else in their place, in practice as well as on paper?

Direction plus embedding plus a person who has to appear personally reads as employment, whatever the invoice says. Enforcement of this test tightened from 2025, and the bill for a misread arrangement lands with the company: back wage tax, social contributions and interest.

What each route costs

A freelancer invoices, adds VAT (value-added tax), carries their own insurance, and you pay the invoice. Simple, and appropriate for project work with a genuinely independent professional who has several clients.

An employee costs the gross wage plus employer charges — social contributions, the income-related healthcare contribution, holiday allowance, pension where a sector scheme applies. Budget meaningfully above the gross figure, and read the two-year rule carefully: a Dutch employer continues paying a sick employee for up to two years, which is the real weight of the contract and the reason insurance belongs in the plan. That shortlist sits in insurance for creators.

The middle route

Payroll through a specialised provider gives the person a proper employment contract while the administration and the sickness risk sit with that provider. It costs a margin on top of the wage and buys clean footing during the phase where one editor becomes three. Many creators run this route for a year, watch the workload settle, and move the person onto their own payroll once the volume is proven.

Before anyone starts

Put the arrangement in writing, matching the label to how the work will genuinely run.
Add an NDA (a confidentiality agreement) and agree in the same document that the work you pay for belongs to the company, including raw footage and project files.
Fold the cost into the salary and dividend plan for the year, using paying yourself and the twelve-month rhythm in your first year of Dutch taxes.

Advice, free of obligation

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Part of Doing Business in the Netherlands — the complete 2026 guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is a freelancer really an employee under Dutch rules? +

When you direct the work, the work is embedded in your ordinary operation, and the person must appear personally. Those three together read as employment, whatever the contract says.

What does an employee cost beyond the gross wage? +

Employer social contributions, the income-related healthcare contribution, holiday allowance and any sector pension — plus continued pay for up to two years of illness.

Is payroll through a provider a good middle route? +

Often yes for a first hire: the person gets a real employment contract while the administration and sickness risk sit with the provider, for a margin on the wage.