Usual salary and paid salary scheme: the rules for DGAs (update 2026)

As a director and major shareholder (DGA) — for example as an entrepreneur with your own private company, start-up founder or private equity manager with a management company — you will have to deal with the usual salary scheme. This regulation determines the minimum salary you must withdraw from your own company. Do you also have a holding company structure or multiple companies? Then the continued payment scheme is also relevant. This makes it possible to make do with one salary for all your companies. In this article, you can read how both regulations work, what changes have recently been made and what new position the tax authorities took in 2026.

What is the usual salary scheme?

The usual salary scheme means that, as a significant shareholder (usually with 5% or more of the shares in a BV), you are expected to receive a normal salary for the size and level of your work. As a DGA, therefore, you cannot make do with a symbolically low salary. You must pay yourself a usual salary that is at least in line with the market. In doing so, the tax authorities set a minimum amount and compares your salary with remuneration in similar situations.

Minimum amount of the usual salary

In 2026, your usual salary must be at least equal to the higher of the following three amounts:

• Market comparison
  This is the salary from the most comparable employment relationship outside the DGA situation. For example, if someone employed in a similar position earns €70,000, you should in principle also include that amount as a salary.
• Internal comparison
  This is the salary of the highest-earning employee within your own BV or an affiliated company. If an employee within your group earns more than the market wage, your salary must be at least the same.
• Fixed minimum
  For 2026, a statutory standard amount of €58,000 per year applies. In 2024 and 2025, this was €56,000. This amount is adjusted periodically. Even if similar positions are paid lower, this minimum applies unless you fall under an exception.

Do you likely have a lower usual remuneration?

In some situations, you may use a salary lower than the above standards, but only if you can substantiate this properly. You must then show that a lower salary is common in comparable positions without a significant interest. The burden of proof is on you. A common misunderstanding is that when working part-time, you can automatically apply a proportionately lower usual salary. This is only allowed if you can substantiate this convincingly or agree in advance with the tax authorities.

Recently changed: efficiency margin expired

Since 2023, the rules have been tightened. Until 2022, you were allowed to use the efficiency margin: at that time, you only had to keep 75% of the market salary as the usual wage. This margin has been abolished. You should now assume 100% of an appropriate market wage, unless you can convincingly defend a lower amount. This means that since 2023, you may have to take a higher salary than before. For example, if the market wage in 2022 was €70,000, €52,500 was sufficient at that time. From 2023, that will be €70,000. It is therefore important to review your DGA salary in time.

Until 2022, start-ups were subject to temporary relaxation, allowing the usual wage to be set at the minimum wage. This regulation has expired for new cases. Since 2023, starting entrepreneurs must also comply with the main rules, subject to transitional law and possibly other prior coordination with the tax authorities.

Continued salary scheme: one salary with multiple companies

If you have a holding structure or several companies, the question arises whether you should include a usual salary for each company separately. That would be impractical. The continued payment scheme offers a solution for this. This arrangement makes it possible for you to receive one salary with one company, while working for several affiliated companies. The usual salary scheme is then assessed at group level instead of by e.g.

In practice, this often means that your holding company is your only formal employer. You are on the payroll there and receive your full DGA salary there. At the same time, you work for your operating companies, without them paying you direct wages. For tax purposes, the salary is fully allocated to the holding company. With one salary, you thus comply with the usual salary scheme for all activities within the group.

Conditions for the continued payment scheme

In order to correctly apply the paid wage scheme, you must meet a number of conditions:

• ‍One formal employer
  You have one real employment relationship, usually with the holding company. From that position, you also work for the other companies.‍
• Agreements between the companies
  The operating companies pay the wage costs for your activities to the holding company. In the administration, the salary costs are centrally accounted for, for example through management fees or internal taxes. The ancillary employers do not pay you a salary directly.‍
• No double benefits
  Ancillary employers are not allowed to give you additional benefits or benefits in kind outside the holding company. Everything runs through the main employment relationship.‍
• Choice of arrangement
  All parties involved must agree to apply the scheme. In regular situations, this requires a joint decision by the tax authorities. With a classic DGA holding structure, prior consultation is not mandatory as long as you apply the scheme correctly in the wage declaration.

If you meet these conditions, one salary can suffice for the entire group. The holding company is liable to withhold payroll taxes and you avoid having to include a separate usual salary for each company.

Tax authorities clarify application in 2026

Until recently, there was uncertainty in situations where the usual salary scheme had not been correctly applied to ancillary employers. Think of a situation where you did work for operating companies, but received no salary there and did not have a paid salary agreement either. The question was whether the inspector could still apply the group approach in such a case.

A knowledge group position of the tax authorities of 14 January 2026 provides clarity about this. If the usual wage scheme has not been applied unfairly, the continued payment scheme can still be applied retroactively, even if no salary has actually been paid. The tax authorities then assume the fictitious salary that you should have received and considers that as a salary for the application of the continued salary scheme.

In the example from this point of view, a DGA works with a holding company and four subsidiary companies in all companies without granting itself a salary. The inspector notes afterwards that a usual salary should have been set for each BV. The tax authorities accept that one usual salary at group level will still be set at the holding company. An earlier position from 2022 has thus been withdrawn.

This clarification is important for DGAs with a corporate structure. The tax authorities are thus in line with the purpose of the law and deals pragmatically with situations where the scheme has not been applied perfectly. This is not a license not to pay a salary, but it is a confirmation that one adequate salary at holding level is key. In practice, it remains wise to make clear agreements in advance or ask for certainty.

Conclusion and advice

The rules concerning the usual wage and continued payment affect almost every entrepreneur with their own private company or concern. They are intended to prevent you from paying yourself too low a salary, but also offer space to work efficiently with one salary within a group. Due to the expiry of the 25% margin and the increase in the standard amount to €58,000, the tax authorities have started to enforce them more closely. Additional supervision is expected in 2025 and 2026.

The advice is therefore to properly determine your usual salary based on current market data and legal criteria. Record your substantiation in writing and include all activities within your companies. If you have multiple companies, use the paid salary scheme to prevent double salaries, but make sure you apply it correctly. Clear internal agreements between holding companies and operating companies help with this and prevent discussion with the tax authorities.