Joining a Dutch construction consortium: the project company, the G-account and your posted workers
The Dutch national agency for roads and waterways (Rijkswaterstaat), the rail network manager ProRail, the regional authorities for dikes and water (the water boards), the electricity grid operator TenneT and the national housing programme will be buying construction and engineering work for decades. Foreign contractors take part by joining a Dutch consortium (bouwcombinatie), in which every partner needs a Dutch payroll, a blocked bank account for payroll taxes (G-account), correct reports of the workers it sends to the Netherlands (posted workers) and the certificates Dutch clients expect. A Dutch project company of your own, a private limited company (BV), takes on all of these duties.
Ask about your situationDutch law makes every company in a construction chain liable for the payroll taxes of the companies after it, a rule known as chain liability (Wet ketenaansprakelijkheid), so main contractors ask each subcontractor for a G-account and pay the payroll-tax part of every invoice into it. Workers you send to the Netherlands must be reported in the Dutch online portal before they start, and your client checks each report within five working days. A company that lends staff to other companies registers that activity in the Dutch Business Register under the Dutch law on staffing (Waadi), and from 1 January 2027 it also needs an admission, a licence to lend staff, under the new Dutch law on staffing companies (Wtta). Everyone who works in the Netherlands is entitled to the Dutch minimum wage, the holiday allowance and the generally binding parts of the collective labour agreement for construction (cao Bouw & Infra).
Your own Dutch project company employs the staff on a Dutch payroll, opens the G-account, has the Waadi registration and the Wtta admission, signs the consortium agreement and invoices the main contractor or the client. It also obtains the Dutch safety certificate for contractors (VCA) and the Dutch certificate for carbon reduction (CO2-Prestatieladder) that Dutch clients ask for. The company, its address, its directors and its shares remain yours. We set up the company and arrange its payroll, bookkeeping, value added tax (VAT) and G-account, while certification bodies, the lawyer for the consortium agreement and the tender writer work as partners at their own price, which you see in advance.
Tell us what you make or sell, where your company is and what you plan in Europe. Our team looks at it and replies with the steps and the dates that apply to you.
Who does what
We set up and manage the Dutch company. Specialist partners do the licence and product work. We are your only contact, with one file for all the work.
Your company
- Own the know-how, the equipment and the references of your group
- Choose the project, the Dutch consortium partners and your share of the work
- Decide the structure, for example one project company, or a holding with a company per project
- Sign the power of attorney for the formation and the applications
The Dutch company
- Set up the project company or the holding structure, by power of attorney, with the notary
- Chamber of Commerce (KVK) number, payroll-tax number, VAT number, the Dutch business login (eHerkenning), Waadi registration in the Business Register
- G-account application at the Dutch Tax Administration (Belastingdienst) and the bank; bookkeeping, VAT returns, annual accounts
- Dutch payroll for site staff and engineers, recognition as a sponsor at the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND), the expat scheme
- One contact for the lawyer, the certification bodies, the Wtta partner and the notary
Licences and product rules
- Lawyer for the consortium agreement and the subcontract with the main contractor
- Certification bodies for VCA and the CO2-Prestatieladder
- Wtta partner for the standards inspection and the admission application in 2027
- Tender writer with experience in Rijkswaterstaat, ProRail and water board tenders
Step by step
From your first question to a project company that signs the consortium agreement.
- Your question. You tell us which project or client you are aiming at, who your Dutch partners are and how many people you bring, and our team advises you on a suitable structure.
- The project company. The notary sets up the BV by power of attorney, with your parent company or a Dutch holding as shareholder. You receive the KVK number, the payroll-tax number and the VAT number. We prepare the bank application and the eHerkenning.
- The G-account. Your project company applies for the blocked account at the Tax Administration and its bank. The main contractor pays the payroll-tax part of each invoice into it.
- The people. Site staff go on the Dutch payroll with Dutch wages, holiday allowance and the collective agreement. Posted staff are notified before they start, with their certificates of home-country social security (A1) on file. Engineers from outside the EU come over as highly skilled migrants through your recognised sponsor.
- Lending staff. When your company lends staff to consortium partners, it registers under the Waadi, registers with the Dutch staffing authority (NAU) before 1 January 2027 and applies for the Wtta admission in 2027.
- The certificates. A certification body audits your company for VCA and the CO2-Prestatieladder, so the consortium complies with the conditions of the tender.
- The contract and the work. Your project company signs the consortium agreement, invoices with Dutch VAT and does the work, while one contact person at Holdwise handles the bookkeeping, VAT and payroll.
The duties of a foreign contractor on a Dutch site
| Duty | Law | Who | What your project BV does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chain liability for payroll taxes | Chain liability (ketenaansprakelijkheid) under Dutch tax law. Payroll taxes are wage tax, national insurance contributions, employee insurance contributions and the health care contribution. | Every contractor and subcontractor in a chain of construction work, each liable for all companies after it in the chain. | Sets up a G-account with the permission of the Dutch Tax Administration (Belastingdienst) and its bank. The main contractor pays the payroll-tax part of each invoice into it. The BV pays its own payroll taxes on time and shows its payment record. |
| Notification of posted workers | Dutch act on the posting of workers (WagwEU), the Dutch version of the EU Posting of Workers Directive, through the online portal postedworkers.nl. | Employers from the EU, the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland that post workers to the Netherlands, also for workers with a non-EU nationality; each subcontractor notifies its own workers. The Dutch client checks the notification within five working days after the start. | Employs the workers directly under Dutch payroll, so the notification duty for posting falls away for them. For staff your parent company posts, the BV is the client that checks the notifications. |
| Social security of posted workers | Under the EU rules on social security, the A1 certificate shows which country’s social security applies. | The employer in the home country applies for the A1 certificate. Workers who lack an A1 certificate are insured in the Netherlands, and the employer withholds the Dutch contributions. | Keeps a Dutch payroll with Dutch contributions for its own staff. Keeps the A1 certificates of posted staff on file for inspections. |
| Work permits for non-EU staff | Dutch work permit rules and the EU rules for employees transferred within their own company group (intra-corporate transferees). | Posted workers from outside the EEA and Switzerland need a work permit for postings under three months and an intra-corporate transferee permit for longer postings. | Applies to the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) for recognition as a sponsor and employs engineers as highly skilled migrants. See hiring in the Netherlands. |
| Lending staff: Waadi registration | Dutch act on the allocation of workers by intermediaries (Waadi). | Every company that makes workers available to another company for a fee, also a foreign company that lends staff on Dutch sites. The hirer checks the registration with the Waadi check of the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (KVK). | Registers in the Dutch Business Register with lending as an activity when it lends staff to consortium partners. |
| Lending staff: Wtta admission | Dutch act on the admission of labour providers (Wtta), in force 1 January 2027. Public register from 1 July 2027. Enforcement by the Netherlands Labour Authority from 1 January 2028. | Lenders: admission or exemption, a deposit of €100,000, a certificate of conduct and an inspection against the standards. Hirers that use a lender that lacks an admission get a fine too. Lenders that register with the Netherlands Authority for the Lending Market (NAU) before 1 January 2027 use the transitional scheme. | Registers with the NAU before 1 January 2027 and applies for the admission in 2027. See the Wtta for lending staff from abroad. |
| Dutch wages and the collective agreement | Dutch minimum wage rules, the Working Hours Act and the generally binding provisions of the collective agreement for construction (cao Bouw & Infra). | Every employer whose staff work in the Netherlands, also a foreign employer posting workers. | Pays Dutch wages and holiday allowance under Dutch payroll and applies the collective agreement. See the Dutch payroll calculator. |
| Safety certificate | VCA, the safety standard for contractors, managed by the Stichting Samenwerken Voor Veiligheid (SSVV), a partnership of 26 industry associations. Levels: VCA*, VCA** for companies that work with subcontractors, VCA Petrochemie. | Companies that do work with higher risks or work in a risky environment; Dutch clients and main contractors ask for it in their contracts. | Obtains the VCA certificate for its own organisation and staff through a certification body. |
| Sustainability in tenders | The CO2-Prestatieladder, owned and managed by the foundation for climate-friendly purchasing and business (Stichting Klimaatvriendelijk Aanbesteden en Ondernemen, SKAO). More than 300 contracting authorities use it in tenders, and more than 8,000 organisations have a certificate. Rijkswaterstaat uses the CO2-Prestatieladder and the environmental cost calculator DuboCalc to compare offers. | Bidders that want the award advantage the ladder gives. | Obtains its own CO2-Prestatieladder certificate through a certification body. |
Rijkswaterstaat keeps its financial and economic requirements to what is strictly necessary, including for consortium bidders, sets minimum sustainability requirements and receives invoices electronically, and it welcomes concrete initiatives on infrastructure from outside parties.
Public spending on roads, water, the grid and housing
The Mobility Fund (Mobiliteitsfonds) pays for roads, waterways and rail, with €10.7 billion in 2027, €11.2 billion in 2028, €11.8 billion in 2029, €11.5 billion in 2030 and €11.4 billion in 2031, and the fund has been extended to 2040. On 8 December 2025 Rijkswaterstaat published a five-year overview of the renewal of bridges, tunnels and locks for 2026 to 2030, with the expected value of the contracts still to be tendered; it updates the overview every year and works on the renewal together with the market.
Flood protection is paid from the Delta Fund (Deltafonds), with €2.1 billion in 2027 and an average of €1.97 billion a year to 2040. The 21 water boards and Rijkswaterstaat work together in the Flood Protection Programme (Hoogwaterbeschermingsprogramma, HWBP) and put in about €475 million a year, of which the national government pays 50%, the water boards together 40% and the local water board 10%. The aim is to bring all primary flood defences up to standard by 2050, and the water boards manage about 90% of them.
TenneT invested €4.9 billion in the Dutch grid in 2025. Under its 2GW Programme it builds up to 13 offshore connections of 2 gigawatts each with 525 kilovolt direct-current cables, seven of them in the Netherlands with commissioning dates from 2029 to 2031, using the international standard construction contracts of the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC).
On 11 December 2024 the national government, provinces, municipalities, water boards and the construction and housing sectors agreed to raise house building to 100,000 new homes a year, with €7.5 billion extra on top of €12.5 billion already reserved.
Tell us what you make or sell, where your company is and what you plan in Europe. Our team looks at it and replies with the steps and the dates that apply to you.
The project company and its holding
The usual form for the Dutch work is a project company (BV), which signs the consortium agreement with the Dutch partners, employs the site staff on a Dutch payroll, has the G-account, the Waadi registration and the Wtta admission, obtains the VCA and CO2-Prestatieladder certificates and invoices the main contractor or the client with Dutch VAT. The references it earns on its first project count towards the next bid.
A Dutch holding that owns the project company keeps the shares and the profit separate from the project risk, while your parent company abroad owns the holding. For each new project you decide whether the same company or a new one does the work.
The company remains yours, with an address you choose, directors you appoint and shares you own. Your Dutch company (BV) costs from €2,950 excl. VAT, and a holding with an operating company from €4,950 excl. VAT. Partners charge their own prices, which you see in advance. See company formation in the Netherlands and Dutch payroll for foreign companies.
Sources
- Tax Administration, chain liability and the G-account (2026).
- Business.gov.nl, posting employees to the Netherlands (2026), on notification, work permits, A1, payroll tax, Waadi, G-account, wages and collective agreements.
- Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, duties of the client on postedworkers.nl (updated 12 October 2026), on the check within five working days, also for non-EU nationals.
- KVK, conditions for lending staff under the Waadi (23 June 2026).
- Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, about the Wtta (5 October 2026) and Government of the Netherlands, tackling abuses by staffing agencies and other lenders (12 August 2026).
- Rijkswaterstaat, procurement policy (29 April 2026) and multi-year overview of the renewal of bridges, tunnels and locks (8 December 2025).
- SSVV, VCA (23 October 2026).
- SKAO, CO2-Prestatieladder (3 June 2026).
- Ministry of Finance, Mobility Fund 2027, chapter A and Delta Fund 2027, chapter J (September 2026).
- HWBP, about the HWBP (11 June 2026).
- TenneT, 2GW Program and investments 2025 (9 March 2026).
- Government of the Netherlands, Woontop, agreements for 100,000 new homes a year (11 December 2024).
Checked on 27 October 2026 against the official sources in the list of sources, as they apply in October 2026. Certification, the consortium agreement and the Wtta inspection are done by specialised partners; we coordinate.
What we arrange beyond the company
Once your Dutch company is set up, we can help you with more. When you win a Dutch defence order, the government asks you to place part of the work with Dutch companies, and we find those companies for you. We prepare subsidy applications for your company, such as the Dutch subsidy for renewable energy and climate projects (SDE++) and the tax credit for research and development (WBSO). We help you buy a Dutch contractor or supplier, and we arrange export credit insurance and project finance with the banks.
We agree every fee with you first and link it to the result. For a project that deserves it, we join as co-founder and take a share of 5 to 10% in the project company.
Common questions
Ask about your own situation
Tell us which project or client you are aiming at, who your Dutch partners are and how many people you bring, and our team will advise you on the structure that suits you.
Related guides
More guides about selling in Europe.