Annual accounts for a temporary employment agency (Dutch): payroll taxes, G-account and provisions

The short answer

A temporary employment agency earns revenue per hour worked and pays over payroll taxes and VAT on it. The balance on the G-account is blocked and may not be offset against the tax debt; medium-sized and large agencies disclose that restriction. Payroll taxes payable, accrued holiday pay and leave are on the balance sheet as a liability. Hours of December belong to the old year.

Updated 30 October 2026

Key facts

Revenue: hours times rate, in the week of the work

Temporary agency work is a service that you deliver while the temporary worker works. You therefore recognise the revenue in the period in which the hours were worked (RJ 270, paragraphs 115 and 116), not when the timesheet is signed off or at the invoice. Anyone who invoices every four weeks almost always has a tail on 31 December: hours of the last days that are only invoiced in January. These are on the balance sheet as revenue still to be invoiced, with opposite it the wages you owe for the same hours (art. 2:362(5) DCC).

The G-account on the balance sheet

A G-account is a blocked bank account linked to your payroll tax and VAT number. You can only use it to pay payroll taxes and VAT to the Belastingdienst, or to transfer on to another G-account. The balance belongs to cash and cash equivalents, but is not freely available. A medium-sized or large agency must disclose that (art. 2:372(2) DCC). For small and micro entities the law does not prescribe that disclosure (art. 2:396(3) DCC, art. 2:395a(4) DCC); with a large blocked balance a line of explanation is nevertheless sensible. Offsetting against the debt to the Belastingdienst is not allowed: receivable and debt each appear in their own item (art. 2:363(2) DCC). If hirers pay in more than you pay over, the balance builds up until the Belastingdienst releases it at your request.

User-undertaking liability and the SNA register

The G-account exists because of the user-undertaking liability: if the temporary employment agency does not pay the payroll taxes and turnover tax on the workers it has lent out, the Belastingdienst can hold the hirer liable. A payment into the G-account releases the hirer for the amount paid in. According to the Belastingdienst brochure (2026 version), full release applies if the agency meets NEN 4400-1 or NEN 4400-2 and is in the register of the Stichting Normering Arbeid (SNA), and the hirer pays 25% of the invoice amount including VAT into the G-account. Where VAT is reverse-charged, that is 20%. In addition there are requirements for the invoice and for the hirer's records.

Wage costs and what you still owe staff

Wages are almost the entire cost price of a temporary employment agency. Under current liabilities belong, at 31 December:

• the payroll taxes for the last return period, a debt to the Belastingdienst (art. 2:375(1) DCC);
• holiday allowance: accrued up to and including 31 May and paid in June, unless you have agreed another moment;
• holiday days that temporary workers and permanent employees have accrued but not taken;
• wages for hours worked that are only paid out in January.

Worked example: the last two weeks of December

A fictitious temporary employment agency with an SNA registration lent out 1.000 hours at € 35 in the last two weeks of December. The invoice goes out on 5 January.

On 31 December € 35.000 is on the balance sheet as revenue still to be invoiced. For June to December the gross wages of the temporary workers were € 420.000; the debt for holiday allowance is 8% of that: € 33.600.

What often goes wrong at temporary employment agencies

• Counting the G-account as freely available money.
• Booking hours of the last week in the year of the invoice.
• Recognising holiday allowance and holiday days as an expense only on payout.
• Recognising disputed or unsigned hours as revenue anyway.

Thin margin, high revenue: the size class

A temporary employment agency quickly reaches high revenue with a thin margin, and net turnover is one of the three size criteria. Therefore go through the audit requirement check every year. The audit requirement follows from the size class (art. 2:393(1) DCC) and not from registration with the SNA.

Jaarrekening.io and the figures of a temporary employment agency

You prepare the payroll journal entries and the reconciliation with the payroll tax return in your payroll and bookkeeping package. You then import the trial balance as an XAF audit file or as an Excel or CSV file, after which you work out the balance sheet, profit and loss account and notes. Jaarrekening.io sends nothing to the KVK or the Belastingdienst.

Sources

• Art. 2:362 DCC: allocation to the financial year
• Art. 2:363 DCC: prohibition of offsetting
• Art. 2:372 DCC: cash and cash equivalents
• Art. 2:375 DCC: liabilities
• Art. 2:393 DCC: audit by an accountant
• Art. 2:395a DCC: micro entity
• Art. 2:396 DCC: small entity
• RJ Publication 2020-15: Guideline 270 The profit and loss account
• Belastingdienst: G-account
• Belastingdienst: user-undertaking liability
• Belastingdienst: brochure on borrowing staff (2026)
• Minimum Wage and Minimum Holiday Allowance Act (Wet minimumloon en minimumvakantiebijslag)

Read more