Estimate the tax savings from the Dutch 30% ruling for qualifying incoming expat employees.
The 30% ruling lets eligible incoming employees receive up to 30% of their gross salary tax-free, to cover the extra costs of working abroad. This tool shows the tax-free portion and estimates the Box 1 tax saved compared to having no ruling, using the 2026 brackets.
Illustrative estimate only, using simplified/rounded 2026 Dutch tax figures — not tax advice. Tax credits phase out at higher incomes, which this tool doesn't model precisely. Always confirm with the Belastingdienst or a tax advisor.
The 30% ruling is a tax facility for employees recruited from abroad with specific expertise scarce in the Dutch labour market, allowing an employer to pay up to 30% of salary as a tax-free allowance rather than fully taxable wages, meant to offset the extra costs of relocating to the Netherlands. For 2026 the applicable salary must meet a minimum norm of €48,013 gross annually (a lower norm applies for those under 30 with a qualifying master's degree), and the tax-free portion is capped once salary exceeds €262,000 — the so-called Balkenende norm — above which the ruling no longer applies to the excess.
A significant change is scheduled ahead: while the maximum stays at 30% for 2026, from 1 January 2027 the percentage reduces to a flat 27% for the remaining duration of any ruling, a policy shift decided after the facility's value was scaled back from its historical structure. The ruling currently runs for a maximum of five years from the start date, and also brings a valuable secondary benefit — eligibility to opt out of Box 3 wealth tax on non-Dutch assets for part of that period.
No — eligibility requires recruitment from abroad (generally having lived more than 150km from the Dutch border for at least 16 of the 24 months before starting), specific expertise scarce in the Netherlands (usually evidenced by meeting the minimum salary norm), and a formal joint application with your employer to the Dutch tax authority within four months of starting employment.
A 2024 policy reform originally planned to taper the percentage down over the ruling's duration, but the final version instead keeps 30% through 2026 and then fixes it at a flat 27% from 2027 onward for the remaining years of any ruling still in effect, a simpler but still reduced structure compared to the ruling's original design.
Generally the tax-free allowance is excluded from pensionable salary and can reduce mortgage borrowing capacity calculations compared to an equivalent fully-taxed salary, since Dutch mortgage lenders typically base capacity on taxable income — a detail often overlooked by relocating employees.
Yes, employees can elect a lower actual reimbursement percentage than the maximum allowed if their genuine extraterritorial costs are lower, though most eligible employees take the full available percentage since it does not need to match actual relocation costs.