How it works
In a Dutch holding structure, the business and the wealth are in separate companies. The operating company operates the business. It has the customers, the employees, the lease and the suppliers. It also bears the risk of a claim or a bad year.
The operating company pays corporate income tax on its profit. It keeps the money it needs for its work. It pays the rest to the holding as dividend, free of corporate tax. In the holding, that money is separate from the business risk.
The operating company employs staff and pays payroll tax. The director-major shareholder (DGA) usually works for it through the holding. The operating company pays the holding a management fee for this. Contracts with customers, licences and permits are in the name of the operating company, because it operates the business.
One holding can own several operating companies, for example one per activity or per country. Each operating company bears its own risk. The holding receives the dividends of all of them.
Example
One owner has a web shop and a consulting practice. She puts them in two operating companies under one holding. A customer makes a product claim against the web shop. Only the web shop company is liable for the claim. She continues the consulting practice as before, and the savings in the holding are safe.
The figures
Every rate for 2026 is listed in Netherlands tax rates 2026, and the figures for 2027 are in Netherlands tax rates 2027.
Questions people ask
Should the operating company keep profit or pay it to the holding?
Keep what the business needs for working capital and investment. Pay the rest to the holding once a year after the annual accounts, after the balance test and the distribution test.
Which company signs the contracts?
The operating company. It does the work for the customer, so the customer signs the contract with it. The holding signs only for its own activities, such as the management agreement or the lease of the property it owns.
Holdwise, Hoofddorp. We keep this definition in line with our Dutch and German glossaries, and the figures are those for the tax year 2026. Updated 30 September 2026.
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