Applying for the 30% ruling in the Netherlands

What the 30% ruling does

The employer may pay an employee recruited from abroad a tax-free allowance of up to 30% of the wage, including the allowance itself, for the extra costs of working away from home. The rest of the wage is taxed as normal. The allowance may be lower than 30%. In 2026 the wage on which the allowance is calculated is capped at € 262,000, so the allowance is at most € 78,600 a year.

The ruling applies only once the Dutch tax authorities have issued a decision (beschikking). Without that decision, no tax-free allowance can be paid under the ruling.

The conditions in 2026

• The employee works for you under an employment contract. Your company does not have to be established in the Netherlands, but it does need a Dutch payroll tax number
• Specific expertise, tested by salary: a taxable wage, without the allowance, of more than € 48,013 a year in 2026. For an employee under 30 with a Dutch master's degree or an equivalent foreign degree: more than € 36,497. No salary norm applies to doctors training as medical specialists and to scientific researchers at designated research institutions
• The salary norm is tested throughout the ruling. If the annual wage in a year falls below the norm, the ruling lapses from 1 January of that year
• Recruited from abroad: when the employment contract was concluded, the employee lived outside the Netherlands
• The 150 km rule: in the 24 months before the first working day in the Netherlands, the employee lived more than 150 km from the Dutch border, as the crow flies, for more than 16 months. So the employee cannot have lived in Belgium or Luxembourg, or in the parts of Germany, France and the United Kingdom within that distance
• Duration: at most five years. Earlier periods of living or working in the Netherlands are deducted from that term

What else a foreign employer arranges, from registering as an employer to VAT, is set out on Dutch VAT for foreign businesses.

How the request works

• Employer and employee file one request together, on the Dutch tax authorities' form for the expat scheme. Both sign it with a pen: digitally signed forms are not accepted
• Attachments: the signed employment contract and the employee's CV, showing where he or she lived and worked. For the lower norm, also the master's diploma
• The form goes by post to the Dutch tax authorities in Heerlen
• Received within four months after the first working day: the ruling applies from that day. Received later: it applies from the following month, the months that have passed count towards the five years, and until then only the actual extra costs can be reimbursed tax-free
• The Dutch tax authorities state that they reply within eight weeks of receiving a complete request

Employer and employee must also agree on the ruling, preferably in writing. The Dutch tax authorities strongly recommend agreeing that the taxable wage stays above the salary norm, so that the allowance can be set lower than 30% where needed.

Changing employer

Does the employee move to a new employer during the term? Then the new employer and the employee file a new request within four months after the start. The new employment must begin within three months after the last working day at the previous employer. The ruling then continues for the rest of the term. Within the same group of companies, no new request is needed.

From 2027: 27%

• From 1 January 2027 the maximum tax-free allowance falls from 30% to 27%
• Employees for whom the ruling was already applied before 2024 keep 30% for the rest of their term
• The salary norms go up on 1 January 2027, on top of the yearly indexation. The Dutch tax authorities publish the amounts for 2027
• Check before the end of 2026 whether each employee still meets the new norm, because the norm is tested every year

Example

An employee recruited from Spain starts in Amsterdam on 1 March 2026. Employer and employee agree a wage of € 70,000 a year, including the allowance.

• Tax-free allowance at 30%: € 21,000
• Taxable wage: € 49,000, above the 2026 norm of € 48,013
• Request received by the end of June 2026, within four months: the ruling applies from 1 March 2026
• From 2027 at 27%: € 18,900 tax-free and € 51,100 taxable. Whether that meets the 2027 norm depends on the indexed amount. If it does not, the agreement to keep the taxable wage above the norm lets the employer lower the allowance

This is a worked example, not a client case.

What we do

We check every condition against the employee's CV, contract and salary, draft the agreement on the ruling for the employment contract and complete the form for you and your employee to sign. We put the attachments together, send the request to the Dutch tax authorities and follow it up until the decision is issued. € 245 per employee, excl. VAT, also for a new request after a change of employer. No Dutch payroll tax number yet? Then we register your company as an employer first, and we can run the Dutch payroll as well.

Moving to the Netherlands yourself? Read what applies to your tax return for that year on our page on the M form.