Yes, as a self-employed plasterer you must build up a pension with bpfBOUW, the pension fund for construction. That also applies to the self-employed ceiling and wall fitter, floor layer, terrazzo worker, block layer and natural stone worker. You have to register yourself. You pay the full premium, on your profit minus an exempt amount.
The premium is deductible from your profit. If you work through your own company and you are its owner-director, you are not covered yourself. Your employees are covered.
In short
- Every business owner with a sole proprietorship or partnership in the finishing trades is a compulsory participant in bpfBOUW, also without staff. You register yourself and file a pension return once a year.
- The premium is based on your profit minus € 19,172, up to a profit of € 82,494.75 (2026). The rules state 25.93% for the finishing trades, of which you do not pay the part for disability pension.
- The premium is deductible as business costs. The owner-director of a company is not covered personally. If in doubt, request a scope investigation.
Position as of October 2026. bpfBOUW has not yet published the premium rate for the self-employed in the finishing trades separately. The amounts in this article are a worked example. Ask bpfBOUW for your own premium.
In this article
- Must you build up a pension with bpfBOUW as a self-employed plasterer?
- How do you register with bpfBOUW?
- On what amount do you pay the premium?
- How much premium do you pay in 2026?
- Can you deduct the premium?
- Are you also covered if you have a company?
- What do you do if you are unsure whether it applies to you?
- Why is pension a point of attention for the self-employed?
Must you build up a pension with bpfBOUW as a self-employed plasterer?
Yes. The minister has made participation in bpfBOUW compulsory for the self-employed in plastering and finishing, ceilings and walls, terrazzo, flooring, block laying and natural stone (mandatory participation decree, Government Gazette 2026, 13666). That rule has existed since 2018 (Government Gazette 2018, 5802). The decree of 18 May 2026 is the latest version.
Self-employed here means every natural person who does the work or has it done as a business owner (Government Gazette 2026, 13666, part B). So the owner of a sole proprietorship with staff is also covered, alongside the employees. The obligation runs until the day you reach state pension age. The 2024 version still said 67 (Government Gazette 2024, 6823).
What counts is what you do. Plastering includes rendering, plastering and sanding, spray plaster, decorative plaster, fixing plaster bases and finishing facades with insulation boards, adhesive and reinforcing mesh. The ceiling and wall sector covers installing system ceilings and system walls (Government Gazette 2026, 13666, part A, 2 sub c). Tiles only count if you lay them in connection with plastering.
If you mainly do painting and wallpapering, you belong to a different fund. For self-employed painters the mandatory participation decree of BPF Schilders applies (Government Gazette 2015, 31061).
How do you register with bpfBOUW?
You do it yourself, as soon as possible after starting your business. The pension rules say so in so many words: anyone who starts as a self-employed worker in the finishing trades must register themselves (bpfBOUW pension rules 2026, chapter 1.1). The fund does not receive data about you from the UWV or other bodies.
Since 1 January 2026 you register, file your return and see your payments in the personal environment on bpfbouw.nl. You file a pension return once a year, where it used to be twice. You pay in 12 instalments (bpfBOUW, registration and return for the self-employed). You send a registration form to premies@bpfbouw.nl. You hear back within 10 working days (bpfBOUW, registering the self-employed).
If you do not file a return, bpfBOUW sets one for you and bases the invoices on it. According to the fund those invoices are often higher than when you file yourself. You pay an invoice within 14 days, also by direct debit (bpfBOUW, registering the self-employed).
On what amount do you pay the premium?
On your business profit, minus an exempt amount. The fund takes the profit before the retirement reserve, before the entrepreneur's allowance and before deducting the pension premium (bpfBOUW pension rules 2026, glossary). The exempt amount is called the franchise: the part of your income on which you build up no pension, because you will receive state pension later. In 2026 the franchise is € 19,172 a year (pension rules, 5.1.2).
Which profit counts depends on how long you have been self-employed. For the first three years it is your estimated profit for that year. From year four it is the profit of three years earlier, because the Belastingdienst has set it by then. In the last three years before state pension age you may choose that year's profit, if it is lower (pension rules, 5.1.1).
There is a ceiling. Above a pensionable income of € 82,494.75 for full-time work you no longer build up a pension with bpfBOUW (pension rules, 5.1.1). If your profit falls after a few good years, from year four you still pay a premium on that earlier, higher profit. Allow for that in your cash buffer.
How much premium do you pay in 2026?
bpfBOUW has not yet published that rate separately for the self-employed. According to the fund, the calculation rules for the self-employed in the finishing trades will be available soon (bpfBOUW, registering the self-employed). The rules do state the premium for the finishing trades: 25.93% of your income minus the franchise. Of this, 0.20% is for disability pension (pension rules, 5.1.3).
As a self-employed worker in the finishing trades you pay no premium for disability pension. You are not entitled to it either (pension rules, 1.4 and 5.1.3). If you deduct that 0.20%, you arrive at 25.73%. That is derived from the rules, not a figure the fund states for the self-employed. Ask bpfBOUW for your actual premium.
Worked example
An example, calculated at 25.73%. A plasterer has an estimated profit of € 45,000 in the second year. The basis is € 45,000 minus € 19,172, so € 25,828. The premium is 25.73% of that: about € 6,646 a year, or € 554 a month. At a profit of € 30,000 it is about € 2,786 a year.
You pay the full premium yourself, so the employer's part and the employee's part together (pension rules, 5.4). If you do not pay, you build up nothing. Your surviving relatives then have no right to partner's and orphan's pension (pension rules, 5.1.3).
If you become unable to work, accrual partly continues. That only applies if you receive a WIA benefit or a comparable benefit from your own insurance, and only at 35% or more incapacity. You apply for that right yourself (bpfBOUW, self-employed in the finishing trades).
Can you deduct the premium?
Yes, as business costs. If as a business owner you participate compulsorily under the Mandatory Industry Pension Fund Participation Act 2000, you deduct the premium for your pension accrual from your profit (Belastingdienst, professional pension premiums). So you pay no income tax on that part of your profit.
There are limits. Your pension accrual must stay within the tax rules, and you can check that with the fund. If you build up extra pension with the fund voluntarily, you can deduct at most one third of the compulsory premium for that each year (Belastingdienst, professional pension premiums).
If you also save in an annuity, you can only deduct that premium if you have a pension shortfall. The room for this is called the annual allowance and depends on your situation in the previous year (Belastingdienst, deducting annuity premiums). Have that room calculated with your accrual at bpfBOUW included.
Are you also covered if you have a company?
No, not if you are the owner-director. The pension rules exclude the owner-director from the group of self-employed workers (pension rules, glossary). The decree defines an owner-director as, among others, someone who personally holds at least one tenth of the shares (Government Gazette 2026, 13666, part A, 5).
Your employees in the company do build up a pension with bpfBOUW. If you hire a plasterer, the employer registers that employee and contributions start from the first working day (pension rules, 1.1). That applies to the company and to the sole proprietorship with staff.
As an owner-director you arrange your pension yourself. Setting up a company just to avoid the premium is usually not a good reason. A company has its own costs, its own accounts and its own rules for your salary. Whether it suits you depends on your profit and your plans.
What do you do if you are unsure whether it applies to you?
First record what you do. Keep a note of the type of work for each job, for example in the description on your invoice. If you do both plastering and painting, or plastering and separate tiling jobs, the largest part of your work decides which fund applies.
If you cannot work it out, you can have a scope investigation done. That is an investigation into whether your work falls under the Finishing Trades agreement and the bpfBOUW mandatory participation decree. Every business may report this for its own business to the Fair Finishing Trades Desk of the Technical Office for the Finishing Trades (Finishing Trades agreement 2026-2027, annex 8, articles 1 and 3). The desk is on mijnafbouw.nl (Fair Finishing Trades Desk).
A committee of employers and unions decides. If you disagree with the decision, you lodge a written objection with that committee within six weeks (Finishing Trades agreement, annex 8, articles 6 and 10). If you do not cooperate with the investigation, that counts as a well-founded presumption that the agreement and the decree apply to you (annex 8, article 4).
As a self-employed worker you will rarely get an exemption. The exemption rules concern a request from an employer for its own employees (Exemption Decree under the Bpf Act 2000, articles 2 to 6). The act does provide an exemption for anyone with conscientious objections to any form of insurance (Bpf Act 2000, article 14). Otherwise participation only ends when you stop working as a self-employed worker in the finishing trades (pension rules, 1.10).
Why is pension a point of attention for the self-employed?
Because the self-employed build up less than employees on average. Research using a large data set of Dutch households looked at the gross replacement rate: pension income as a share of the income before. Half of the households were above 83% and half below. For 31% of households it was below 70%, and the self-employed were below average (Knoef and others, 2016).
The difference between self-employed people is large. A Dutch study followed more than 50,000 people from 1989 to 2017. Those who were self-employed for a long time were not worse off than employees. Those who were self-employed briefly and otherwise worked little were vulnerable (Beusch & Van Soest, 2020).
Those studies covered all Dutch self-employed people, not just the finishing trades. They do show why the sector made pension compulsory for the self-employed. For you it mainly means: include the monthly premium in your hourly rate or price per m², also in months with less work.
Sources
- Minister of Social Affairs and Employment (2026). Decree of 18 May 2026 amending and partly withdrawing mandatory participation in the industry pension fund for Construction. Government Gazette 2026, 13666. officielebekendmakingen.nl
- Minister for Poverty Policy, Participation and Pensions (2024). Decree of 27 February 2024 amending mandatory participation in the industry pension fund for Construction. Government Gazette 2024, 6823. officielebekendmakingen.nl
- Minister of Social Affairs and Employment (2018). Decree amending mandatory participation in the industry pension fund for Construction. Government Gazette 2018, 5802. officielebekendmakingen.nl
- bpfBOUW. Pension rules, solidarity contribution scheme, in force from 1 January 2026. bpfbouw.nl
- bpfBOUW. Self-employed in the Finishing Trades or Natural Stone sector. Accessed 28 October 2026. bpfbouw.nl
- bpfBOUW. Registering the self-employed in the Finishing Trades or Natural Stone sector. Accessed 28 October 2026. bpfbouw.nl
- bpfBOUW Employers. Self-employed in the Natural Stone and Finishing Trades sector, registration and return. Accessed 28 October 2026. werkgevers.bpfbouw.nl
- State Secretary for Social Affairs and Employment (2015). Amendment of mandatory participation in the industry pension fund for the painting, finishing and glazing sector. Government Gazette 2015, 31061. officielebekendmakingen.nl
- Belastingdienst. Professional pension premiums: limited deduction. Accessed 28 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- Belastingdienst. Deducting annuity premiums. Accessed 28 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- Finishing Trades agreement 2026-2027 with the sector-specific arrangements agreement, version of 22 July 2026, annex 8 rules on compliance and scope investigations. Published by FNV. fnv.nl
- Technical Office for the Finishing Trades. Fair Finishing Trades Desk, compliance. Accessed 28 October 2026. mijnafbouw.nl
- Mandatory Industry Pension Fund Participation Act 2000, article 14. In force on 28 October 2026. wetten.overheid.nl
- Exemption Decree under the Bpf Act 2000. In force on 28 October 2026. wetten.overheid.nl
- Knoef, M., Been, J., Alessie, R., Caminada, K., Goudswaard, K. & Kalwij, A. (2016). Measuring retirement savings adequacy: developing a multi-pillar approach in the Netherlands. Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, 15(1), 55-89. doi.org
- Beusch, E. & Van Soest, A. (2020). Labour Market Trajectories of the Self-employed in the Netherlands. De Economist, 168(1), 109-146. doi.org