Why do foreign companies pick the Netherlands, and when is it the wrong answer?

Companies pick the Netherlands for reach rather than for price: a member state of the European Union, a dense network of tax treaties, a workforce that works in English, and research support paid out through payroll. It is the wrong answer when the plan depends on cheap salaries, easy housing, a quick bank account or a heavy power connection.

Most pages about landing in the Netherlands read like a brochure. This one names what the country is good at, and then the four places where founders from outside Europe are routinely surprised.

The short version: the Netherlands is a good place to be European from, and a demanding place to grow a team in. Those two facts decide which kind of company should land here, and which should look at another member state first.

What the country is actually selling

Access, not cost. A company established in the Netherlands is established in the European Union, which means one entity can sell into the whole single market without a separate legal presence per country. That is the product. The rest is supporting infrastructure: a large airport, a large port, and a working culture that runs in English.

Two facts make that access concrete. The Netherlands has working tax treaties with almost a hundred countries: the treaties with Andorra and Kyrgyzstan came into force on 1 January 2025, which brought the count to 98. Those treaties exist so that people and companies do not pay tax twice on the same income, which matters from the first intercompany invoice a new subsidiary sends to its parent. And the corporate income tax rate is 19% on the first EUR 200,000 of taxable profit and 25.8% above that, unchanged since 2023.

Neither makes the Netherlands the cheapest option in Europe. They make it a predictable one, which for a company planning a European round is usually worth more.

Sources:
Rijksoverheid, Nederland heeft met bijna 100 landen een belastingverdrag, 19 February 2025 (in Dutch)
Belastingdienst, Tarieven voor de vennootschapsbelasting (in Dutch)

The research subsidy is the real discount

If there is one Dutch argument that survives contact with a spreadsheet, it is WBSO, the national tax credit for research and development. It does not arrive as a grant. It lowers the payroll tax a company pays for the people doing the work, month by month, which means it reaches a young company that has staff but no profit.

According to the RVO handbook for 2026, the reduction is 36% of the first EUR 391,020 of the total research base and 16% of everything above it, with no ceiling, and a company that counts as a starter gets 50% on that first part instead of 36%. A newly formed Dutch subsidiary often meets the starter test. What it is worth over a year is set out in what WBSO is worth in 2026, and whether a foreign parent changes anything is answered in WBSO for foreign-owned companies.

That is why order matters: money that does not cost you shares is tied to payroll, and payroll is tied to the entity.

Source: RVO, Handleiding WBSO 2026, sections 1.3.1 and 1.3.3 (PDF, in Dutch)

Where it gets expensive

Hiring is the first surprise. The Dutch labour market has been tight for years, and it is still tight: Statistics Netherlands counted 95 vacancies for every 100 unemployed people in the second quarter of 2026, with 375 thousand vacancies open. In practical terms a candidate has options, notice periods are long, and an unknown foreign brand competes against employers people already know.

Housing is the second. Rents of homes in July 2026 were on average 4.4% higher than a year earlier, and the average transaction price of an existing owner-occupied home in August 2026 was EUR 503,523, with prices 3.3% above the year before. For a company relocating people, that is the reason an accepted offer falls through.

The third is a rule that is moving against incoming employees. The expat scheme, widely known as the 30% ruling, lets an employer pay part of the salary of a qualifying employee from abroad free of tax. From 1 January 2027 that part falls to 27%, with a higher salary threshold, subject to a transitional arrangement for people who were already using the scheme. Any relocation budget built on the older figure is wrong for arrivals from that date.

Sources:
CBS, Werkloosheid gedaald in tweede kwartaal 2026 (in Dutch)
CBS, Woninghuur stijgt gemiddeld met 4,4 procent, 4 September 2026 (in Dutch)
CBS, Prijsstijging koopwoningen vlakt in augustus verder af (in Dutch)
Business.gov.nl, 30% ruling: compensation for expats down to 27%

The bank account is the part nobody plans for

Incorporation is fast and mostly paperwork. The bank account is neither. A bank has to identify the client, identify the people who ultimately own it, and understand the ownership and control structure before it opens anything. A company owned from Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei, Singapore or Istanbul has to prove that structure from abroad, in another language.

This is where landing timetables break, and it is why responsible pages about the Netherlands do not attach a date to it. The mechanics, and what to prepare so the questions only come once, are in opening a Dutch business bank account. The company itself, and why it is almost always a BV, is in what is a BV.

The power grid is now a location question

For a software company this is irrelevant. For anything with a laboratory, a pilot line or heavy equipment it is the first question to ask, before the city and before the office.

In much of the Netherlands the electricity network is close to full. Businesses that want a new or a heavier connection are put on a waiting list, and from 1 July 2026 applications in congested areas are ranked differently: priority goes to solutions that relieve the network, to organisations that matter for safety such as hospitals and defence, and to basic needs such as housing, schools and public transport. A growing manufacturer is in none of those groups.

So a site has to be checked for available capacity before it is chosen, not after the lease is signed. Why hardware companies keep running into gaps like this one is the subject of Why deep tech has no landing track.

Source: Rijksoverheid, Maatregelen tegen vol elektriciteitsnet, netcongestie (in Dutch)

When the answer should be somewhere else

The Netherlands fits a company whose value is in people and intellectual property, that wants one European entity to sell from, that will employ engineers and can therefore use the research credit, and that expects to raise from European investors who are comfortable with Dutch company law. For that profile the costs above are the price of admission.

It fits badly when the plan rests on low salaries, on hiring quickly at scale, on housing a large relocated team, or on a heavy industrial connection at short notice. Those plans are not impossible here, but another member state may suit them better. Which one depends on what you are optimising for, and the comparison is set out in where to set up in Europe, with the two matchups founders ask about most in the Netherlands or Ireland and the Netherlands or Germany. Whether a founder can start here at all is a separate question, covered in can a foreigner start a business in the Netherlands; the choice between cities is in choosing a city in the Netherlands.

The rest of the setup questions sit together in the company setup guides, and how a landing and a European round fit into one sequence is set out in the Route.

Sources

1. Rijksoverheid, Nederland heeft met bijna 100 landen een belastingverdrag, 19 February 2025 (in Dutch), checked 22 September 2026
2. Belastingdienst, Tarieven voor de vennootschapsbelasting (in Dutch), checked 22 September 2026
3. RVO, Handleiding WBSO 2026 (PDF, in Dutch), checked 22 September 2026
4. CBS, Werkloosheid gedaald in tweede kwartaal 2026 (in Dutch), checked 22 September 2026
5. CBS, Woninghuur stijgt gemiddeld met 4,4 procent (in Dutch), checked 22 September 2026
6. CBS, Prijsstijging koopwoningen vlakt in augustus verder af (in Dutch), checked 22 September 2026
7. Business.gov.nl, 30% ruling: compensation for expats down to 27%, checked 22 September 2026
8. Rijksoverheid, Maatregelen tegen vol elektriciteitsnet, netcongestie (in Dutch), checked 22 September 2026

Checked on 22 September 2026. This page is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice. Rules change: check the official source, or ask an adviser, before you act on it.