Healthcare premium is not a popular subject in the Netherlands and I would like to make it even less popular.
Healthcare premium is paid twice by Dutch tax residents with an income
Anybody in the Netherlands is very much aware of the fact that a person needs to take out a health care insurance. If you do not for any reason, you soon receive a substantial penalty per month for each month you have not insured yourself from the SVB. Therefore everybody in the Netherlands pays health care insurance premium.
The premium is paid to a health care insurance company of your choice and you also chose what you would like to have insured and what not. Dental you can opt in extra for instance.
How is healthcare premium paid for twice?
If you are employed your employer pays a percentage of your gross income to the Dutch tax office for health care insurance as well. Until a couple of years ago this was shown on your salary specification. Now it is not shown but still very much paid by your employer.
Self employed and healthcare premium
If you are self employed then you will learn at the end of the year when you file your income tax return, that an additional amount on top of the income tax assessment is charged to you. That is the obligatory health care insurance premium an employer withholds for its employee. As the self employed person does not have an employer, this amount is collected in the income tax return.
Self employed – BV company
If you are self employed via a BV company, then in your wage tax return you find an additional amount being due besides the tax for your gross income, being the health care insurance.
Healthcare premium numbers
The employment income or profit income is subject to healthcare premium over the first EUR 52.763 (2016) per year. An employee pays 6,75% health care premium. A self employed person, either via BV company or one man company, pays over the same max income 5,50% health care premium.
E101 or A1 statements
It is possible that you are not subject to Dutch healthcare premiums. You can only avoid Dutch healthcare premiums if you can show a so called E101 or A1 statement. Then you are socially insured in another country. Being socially insured somewhere is not a choice, conditions are to be met.
For employers who are provided by an employee with a A1 or E101 statement we recommend to check with the SVB if this is indeed an applicable statement. We have experienced that people can be creative. Creative as copy pasting something themselves, or applying for a self employed statement while employment is the situation in the Netherlands.
Orange Tax Services
Our payroll team is able to process your payroll.
