FAQ (artists)

The artists arrangement is a special scheme within payroll taxes that – unlike the arrangement for employees – offers the possibility to deduct professional expenses.

The Dutch Tax Office regards you a performing artist if you meet the following criteria:

• You are a performing artist
• You don’t use a standard/model agreement (tax declaration self-employed artist; former VAR) or tax withholding statement.
• You live in the Netherlands, you are covered by the Dutch Tax Office or live in a country without a tax treaty with the Dutch government.
• You work in the Netherlands or you agree to payroll your foreign performances.
• You work less than three months for one client.
• Your activities do not concern private performances or compensation for rehearsals.

• You don’t need a model agreement (tax declaration self-employed artist; former VAR).
• You are insured for all employee insurances (ZW, WW, WIA and WAZO) 
(In case you’re not fully using cost dispensation (kleine vergoedingsregeling (KVR).

If you wish to be employed by us, please fill out the registration form and send it together with a copy of your passport (both pages when the passport is opened) or ID card (copy of both the front and back side).

• Registration Form

If you wish to report a change regarding the cost dispensation (KVR) we will need a filled in Engelse naam formulier] KVR.

If you are a new customer, we kindly ask you to send us the registration form along with a copy of your ID (driver's license not accepted).

Do you have any questions? Email or give us a call. We'll happily explain everything to you in detail.

On this page you can securely upload the required documents.

A driving licence is not valid for all identification purposes. This is because a driving licence does not contain any information about your residence status and nationality.

As an employer, we require an identity document that does contain this information. Therefore, you can only identify yourself to us using copies/images of a passport or an ID card.

On the website of the Rijksoverheid (Dutch National Government), you can find an overview of the rules.

Once we received and processed a complete payroll assignment, the client receives an invoice from us. Once this invoice is paid, usually within 21 days, we will transfer the net salary to the artist’s bank account the same day. A group of artists can also be paid on a shared bank account.

Note: If personal data is incomplete, we will hold the payment until we received all missing data or documents. The artist will receive a status notification about this by e-mail.

The artist arrangement mentions the term performance fee, not salary. The Dutch Tax Office makes a distinction between performance fee and salary.

Different arrangements can be made about the performance fee. We distinguish the following variations:

• Performance fee: total salary excluding 9% VAT, i.e. the all-in amount agreed with the client. This may exclude administration costs, depending on the agreements made. For VAT-registered clients, 9% VAT is charged on top of the performance fee.
• Gross salary: salary including salary tax but excluding social premiums. These premiums are charged on top of the gross salary, so the client pays these premiums.
• Net salary: salary that the performing artist receives on his / her bank account. Salary tax and social premiums have already been deducted and are paid by the client.

A performance fee excluding VAT is the most commonly used method of payment.

Yes. If you’re performing abroad, you can be payrolled by Artiestenverloningen.

The method is similar to payrolling a performance in the Netherlands. For Dutch clients/employers we charge VAT on top of the performance fee. If the client is established abroad, we will send an invoice in English, German or Dutch (Flemish) without VAT.

Within the European Union (EU), besides a full address and e-mail address we also need your clients’ VAT-number in addition to the. You need to request this from the specific client. This allows us to divert VAT: this way no VAT will be charged. We charge a € 17,50 fee for this complicated process.

Sometimes a foreign client does not have a VAT-number. If the client is established outside the EU, we don’t charge VAT. In this case we also don’t need a VAT-number. In some countries a partial tax is deducted from the performance fee, which differs from country to country. For example: Belgium has a 18 % company tax. Whether this is deducted depends on the number of performances and the amount of the performance fee. Since 2016, Germany taxes performance fees according to the new tax treaty. However, based on the compensation arrangement, this can be settled with Dutch income tax. In this case, you should prove that the tax has been paid in Germany.

Because the rules regarding deductions abroad aren’t always clear, you should check in advance with your client if there will be any deduction from your performance fee.

Artists who are payrolled via the artist arrangement will be entitled to a cost deduction from payroll tax for their professional expenses. Cost dispensation (KVR) is a pre-deduction of professional expenses. No salary tax and social premiums are deducted from the amount of applied KVR. The KVR amounts to a maximum of € 163 per performance. The amount of the KVR does not have to be equal to the professional expenses for the specific performance. In the income tax return, the total amount of applied KVR for one calendar year should equal the total of annual professional expenses. In case less professional expenses can be deducted than the total amount of applied KVR, income tax still has be paid.

Benefits KVR

• The performing artist doesn’t have to wait for income tax return at the beginning of the year, if sufficient professional expenses can be deducted.
• No social premiums are deducted from the amount of applied KVR. This is an advantage if the performing artist does not claim unemployment or sickness benefit in the future. This is also beneficial if the performing artist is permanently employed (with a fixed contract), so no double social premiums have to be paid.

Disadvantages KVR

• The performing artist cannot claim unemployment or sickness benefits because no (or a part of) social premiums were paid. It could also result in a lower social benefit.
• If less professional expenses can be deducted than the amount of applied KVR, income tax  must still be paid later on.

In order to apply the KVR, we need a signed permission form from the performing artist. On our website you can find a KVR permission form. Our application form also has a section in which artists can give permission to apply KVR.