All articles · 2026-02-06 · Accounting
Why a salary policy should be the starting point of every remuneration choice
As an entrepreneur, you are allowed to pay yourself a salary. But you can also choose not to. There is no legal minimum wage for business managers (zaakvoerders). That makes the…
By Jan Hermans, CEO & founder of Lyff.
At Lyff., almost every partnership starts in the same place: with a salary policy. That often surprises entrepreneurs. Many have never even heard of a salary policy. And yet, it is precisely that document that makes the difference between loose choices and a well-thought-out strategy. Before we look at the salary policy in detail, let's highlight what entrepreneurs are confronted with.
Salary is expensive
It's no secret that salary is an expensive way to get money into your private accounts. Even without tax knowledge, every entrepreneur feels that a high salary mainly benefits the state. Dividend, benefits in kind (voordelen van alle aard), or other structures therefore often seem more efficient. If you take that reasoning to an extreme, the one with the lowest salary almost always wins against someone who does everything via salary. But that observation is too simplistic to build a strategy upon.
Entrepreneursssss quickly think in extremes
When entrepreneurs think about remuneration, it almost always happens in opposites. Salary versus dividend. High versus low. Everything today versus everything later.
This way of thinking is understandable, but it doesn't do justice to reality. In practice, strength rarely lies in a single option, but in the combination of different stages over time. Those who only pit options A and B against each other miss opportunities to build peace of mind, both privately and in business.
Why the story is more complex than "as little salary as possible"
Remuneration is not an isolated decision, but a whole set of choices that must align with:
- your actual performance
- your role in the company
- your protection and pension accrual
- and the defensibility of your structure
Those who do not consider and define this might optimize in the short term but do not build a sustainable narrative.
What a salary policy truly is
A salary policy is not a template and not a fixed recipe. There is no ready-made template today that you can simply fill in. It is a document that proves you have thought about how you compensate yourself as a business leader. Not just through salary, but through the entire package: salary, benefits, pension, protection, and other elements. The starting point is always the same question: how do we correctly compensate the actual performance of the business leader? That answer changes over time. And that is precisely the intention.
A salary policy is not a static document
A salary policy starts from a certain reality, but that reality rarely stays the same. Your company changes. What makes sense today might be outdated in two or five years. The role of the entrepreneur shifts along: from executive to guiding, from do-it-all to ultimate responsible. And privately, more evolves than we often want to admit. What you need at thirty is rarely the same as at fifty.
Precisely because of this, a salary policy is a document of progressive insight. It does not fix amounts for eternity but makes visible why certain choices are made at a specific moment. This makes it possible to adjust later without feeling that previous decisions were wrong. A good salary policy creates continuity in reasoning, not in figures. It allows one to say: this was logical then, and this is logical today, without breaks or excuses.
That is precisely where its strength lies. Not in fixing everything, but in providing direction. It offers guidance when circumstances change and ensures that adjustments are not ad-hoc reactions but the result of a previously well-thought-out framework.
Why a salary policy is indispensable during an audit
During a tax audit, it's rarely about whether something is technically allowed. The law leaves room, often more than entrepreneurs think. But that room only works to your advantage if you can demonstrate that it was used consciously. The core question is almost always the same: have you thought about this, or was this pieced together afterward?
A salary policy provides a clear answer to this. It shows that choices did not arise by chance but are part of a broader reasoning. That salary, benefits, and other structures are not isolated interventions but components of one story. Without a salary policy, you have to start telling that story during the audit. With a salary policy, it's already there. Not as a defense, but as substantiation.
That difference is crucial. It turns an audit not into a discussion about intentions, but a conversation about policy. And that's precisely where the maturity of a file lies.
A salary policy does not prove that you have done "everything correctly." It represents that your choices are the result of deliberation, not improvisation. And in practice, that is often the difference between a defensible file and a conversation that goes awry.
No template, but custom work
Every salary policy is custom work. Period. It starts from history, harmonizes salary, optimization, pension, and protection, and takes into account what the entrepreneur themselves considers important. A remuneration policy can only work if it is supported by conscious choices that are laid down.
A salary policy is not about amounts. It's about structure. Without a salary policy, salary, dividends, and benefits become loose puzzle pieces. With a salary policy, they form one story.
And it is precisely that story that makes the difference.