Start-ups and scale-ups often lack the financial resources to offer their employees a competitive salary. Share options can provide a solution to this. Income from share options is taxed at the rates applicable under Box 1 of the income tax system. In the Netherlands, these rates are considerably higher than in other countries. <\/p>\n
To stimulate start-ups and scale-ups, the Government is proposing a lower payroll tax on income from share options for employees of start-ups and scale-ups. Taxation will be deferred until the shares acquired through the option rights are sold. The intended date of entry into force is 1 January 2027. The exemption for these shares under Box 3 is to take effect from 1 January 2028.<\/p>\n
The basis for payroll tax is capped at 65%, meaning that the effective rate is roughly equal to the rate in box 2. It is proposed that this measure should apply to share options issued by start-ups and scale-ups since the announcement of the tax scheme in the 2025 Spring Memorandum, provided that they have not yet left the payroll system.<\/p>\n
A condition for the application of the scheme is that the share option or the shares acquired upon its exercise may not be disposed of within two years of being granted. This condition does not apply in the event of an earlier sale or flotation of the company, as in such a situation the employee is often compelled to sell their shares and option rights.<\/p>\n
The RVO determines by decision whether a company qualifies as a start-up or a scale-up. That decision is valid for eight years and may be extended. Once the decision has expired, the company is no longer considered a start-up or a scale-up. Options or shares derived from them, which have not yet been subject to tax at that point, fall under the existing scheme for share options in payroll taxes. The reduction in the tax base is granted on a pro rata basis.<\/p>\n
Where an employee emigrates before the share options or shares have been included in payroll tax, a notional disposal of the shares (or options) is assumed. A provisional tax assessment is issued in respect of this. A deferral of payment is granted for this assessment.<\/p>\n
Shares or option rights that qualify as a financial interest are not covered by this scheme, even if they relate to a start-up or scale-up.<\/p>\n
Start-ups and scale-ups often lack the financial resources to offer employees a competitive<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4690,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vwg.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vwg.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vwg.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vwg.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vwg.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vwg.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vwg.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vwg.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vwg.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vwg.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}