A Dutch payslip is called a loonstrook, and it is the legal record of what you earned and what was taken off it.
Checking it is not pedantry: payroll errors here are common enough that most people find one eventually, and the ones that cost you money are easy to spot once you know the line names.
This walks through the layout, the gross-to-net calculation with the 2026 rates, and the four mistakes worth looking for every month.
The Layout
Every loonstrook has the same three sections: identification at the top, the calculation in the middle, year-to-date totals at the bottom.
The top carries your name, your personeelsnummer, your BSN, the employer’s details, your FTE and the pay period.
An FTE of 1.0 means full-time, and a wrong figure here quietly underpays you every month, so it is the first thing to check against your contract.
Two date fields sit alongside it: dagen tijdvak, the number of days in the period, and dagen gewerkt, the days actually worked.
Verloonde uren gives the paid hours, which is the line that matters most on an hourly or variable contract.
The middle section starts with your basisloon, also written as salaris or brutoloon, and an uurloon line if you are paid by the hour.
Below it come bonuses, tax-free reiskosten travel allowance and declaratie onkosten expense claims, each of which is treated differently for tax.
The bottom holds totalen and cumulatief - running annual figures for gross pay, tax withheld and pension - plus the IBAN the money goes to.
If that account is not open yet, the guide to banking in the Netherlands covers setting one up.
Lines marked reservering are amounts being held for you rather than paid, and holiday allowance is the main one.
Gross To Net
The largest deduction is loonheffing, which bundles wage tax and national insurance contributions into one figure your employer sends straight to the Belastingdienst.
It is calculated fresh each period rather than annually, which is why a bonus month is taxed harder than it feels it should be.
The rates for 2026 are 35.75 per cent on income to €38,883, 37.56 per cent to €78,426 and 49.50 per cent above, applied through the progressive system.
What lands in your account also depends on two credits that pull in the other direction.
The algemene heffingskorting is a general credit that everyone gets and that tapers away as income rises.
The arbeidskorting is an additional credit for earned income, and between them they are worth thousands a year at middle incomes.
The credits may be applied by only one employer at a time, through the loonheffingskorting setting.
Two jobs both applying it is the single most expensive payroll error there is, because it produces a large bill at the annual return rather than a wrong payslip.
Your nettoloon at the foot of the middle section is what reaches the bank.
Run a Dutch net-salary calculator before signing a contract, since the gap between gross and net is wider here than most arrivals expect.
Insurance And Pension Lines
Dutch social insurance splits into two systems, and only one of them costs you anything visible.
Volksverzekeringen covers the state pension (AOW), survivor benefits (Anw) and long-term care (WLZ), and is already inside your loonheffing rather than shown separately.
Werknemersverzekeringen covers unemployment (WW), disability (WIA and WAO) and sick pay (ZW), and is paid entirely by your employer.
A line reading something like SV/ZVW/WW/WAO loon shows the wage base those employer premiums are calculated on.
The ZVW line is the employer’s income-related health insurance contribution, which does not reduce your net pay and does not replace the basic policy you must buy yourself.
Pension is usually the second real deduction after tax.
Most employers run a scheme, contribute more than you do, and take your share from gross pay - which lowers your taxable income, so the true cost is less than the line suggests.
How that accumulates is covered in the guide to pensions and retirement in the Netherlands.
Holiday Pay, The 30 Per Cent Ruling, And What Goes Wrong
Holiday allowance, vakantiegeld or vakantietoeslag, is a statutory 8 per cent of annual gross salary and not a bonus.
Most employers reserve it monthly and pay it as a lump in May or June, so the reservering line is money you already own.
Watch how a job advert quotes salary, because “€50,000 including holiday allowance” is a materially smaller offer than “€50,000 plus 8 per cent”.
The 30 per cent ruling lets a qualifying worker recruited from abroad receive up to 30 per cent of gross salary tax-free.
It becomes a flat 27 per cent from 1 January 2027 for anyone who started using it from 2024, one of the shifts listed in Dutch laws changing in 2026.
Pension contributions are still calculated on the full gross salary even where the ruling applies.
Eligibility is decided on recruitment history, scarce expertise and a salary threshold, so confirm it with your employer or a qualified adviser rather than assuming.
The recurring errors are a wrong FTE, missing tax credits, loonheffingskorting applied at two jobs at once, and travel allowance paid at the wrong rate or not at all.
Raise any of them with payroll in the same month, since a correction within the tax year is routine and one after it is not.
Keep every loonstrook as a file rather than trusting the payroll portal, because comparing January against June is how the quiet errors surface.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I read a Dutch payslip?
Read it in three parts: identification at the top, the gross-to-net calculation in the middle, cumulative annual totals at the bottom.
The four lines that matter are brutoloon, loonheffing, the pension deduction and nettoloon, and each should reconcile with your contract.
What is deducted from a Dutch salary?
Loonheffing, combining wage tax and national insurance, plus your share of the pension contribution and any items such as a company car.
Employee insurance premiums for unemployment and disability are paid by the employer and do not reduce your net pay.
How do I estimate net pay from a gross figure?
Use a Dutch net-salary calculator, which applies the current brackets, the standard credits and a typical pension contribution.
Adjust afterwards for your actual pension scheme and for the 30 per cent ruling, since both move the answer substantially.
What is the 30 per cent ruling worth?
Up to 30 per cent of gross salary received tax-free for as long as five years, which is the largest single factor in a Dutch net salary.
It drops to 27 per cent from 2027 for more recent arrivals - the wider context is in the expat life guide.
What is the minimum wage?
It is a statutory hourly rate for workers aged 21 and over, revised every 1 January and 1 July, with fixed lower percentages for younger workers.
It applies whatever your contract type, and your payslip must show at least that rate for the hours worked.
Is a pro forma payslip binding?
No - it is an estimate produced before or during contract talks and carries no legal weight.
The official loonstrook issued after payroll runs is the binding record, and an employer must supply one whenever your pay changes and at least annually.
