Netherlands 30% ruling: how I handle it

The 30% ruling (30%-regeling, now officially the expatregeling) lets a Dutch withholding agent pay a qualifying employee recruited from abroad a fixed tax-free allowance instead of reimbursing actual extraterritorial costs receipt by receipt. It runs for a maximum of 5 years, reduced by earlier periods of stay or work in the Netherlands. It is a payroll facility applied by the employer under a decision (beschikking) issued to employer and employee jointly, not something the employee claims alone on a return.

Two things make 2026 an unusual year. It is the last year at 30% for anyone who entered from 2024 onward (27% from 1 January 2027), and it is the last year of the transitional partial non-resident status, which was abolished for new use from 1 January 2025.

Who this is for

Qualifies: an employee on a Dutch payroll who meets the definition of ingekomen werknemer, holds specific expertise evidenced by a salary above the annual norm, and for whom the Belastingdienst has issued a beschikking.

Does not qualify: anyone who lived within 150 km of the Dutch border for too much of the 24 months before their first Dutch working day. The Belastingdienst is blunt about the consequence: the facility cannot be used for employees from Belgium and Luxembourg. The same bar catches Northern France, large parts of Germany and a small part of the UK.

No income norm needed: scientific researchers at certain institutions and trainee medical specialists are carved out and need not meet an income norm.

Send to a specialist when: the employee held a Dutch ruling with a previous employer and is switching jobs (the ruling does not travel automatically); the employee has a doctorate obtained in or near the Netherlands (a separate PhD route exists); the employee has any Dutch history in the last 25 years that could shorten the 5 years; or the employee is relying on the pre-2024 transitional package.

Before you start, ask the client

• Where did the employee live in the 24 months before their first Dutch working day, and for how many months in each place? The test is more than 16 of those 24 months at more than 150 km from the Dutch border.
• Was the employee recruited from abroad, or already here?
• Any prior residence, work or even long visits to the Netherlands in the last 25 years? These reduce the 5-year run, subject to small carve-outs.
• Has the employee worked in the Netherlands before and is now returning? A border-region exception exists where the earlier work period began at most 8 years ago.
• What is the exact first working day? This starts the 4-month application clock.
• What is the contractual salary, and is the 30% treated as inside or outside that figure? This decides whether the taxable remainder clears the norm.
• Is there a Dutch doctorate in the picture?
• Did the employee use the ruling before 2024? That governs both the percentage from 2027 and the partial non-resident transitional.

The method, step by step

1. Test the incoming-employee definition first. More than 16 of the 24 months before the first Dutch working day at more than 150 km from the border. If this fails, stop. No salary level rescues it.
2. Test the expertise requirement against the 2026 salary norm. Taxable annual salary must exceed €48,013 excluding the targeted exemption, or €36,497 for an employee under 30 holding a Dutch academic master's or equivalent foreign degree. Check whether the researcher / trainee-specialist carve-out applies instead.
3. Choose your route for the calendar year. You either reimburse actual extraterritorial costs or apply the expatregeling. The choice is made in the first pay period of the calendar year and binds for the whole year. You cannot flip mid-year.
4. File the request within 4 months of the first working day. Employer and employee sign jointly. Expect a reply within 8 weeks.
5. Apply the exemption in payroll. Either up to 30% of salary including the allowance, or the equivalent 30/70 of salary excluding the allowance.
6. Apply the cap. In 2026 the tax-free allowance is capped at €78,600, reached at a salary of €262,000 or higher for a full year. The cap is applied per withholding agent and pro-rated over the part of the year it applies, under article 31a(8) Wet LB 1964 by reference to article 2.3 Wet normering topinkomens.
7. Re-test the income norm every year of the run.
8. Diarise the end date and the 2027 step-down. Confirm which row of the transitional table your employee sits in before running 2027 payroll.

The traps

• Missing the 4-month window. File within 4 months of the first working day and the facility runs from day one. File later and you lose that retroactivity. The precise start date for a late-filed request is set out on the beschikking; confirm before filing.
• Dropping below the salary norm mid-year is not a partial loss, it is a full-year loss. If the salary in a year is lower than the indexed norm, the facility lapses retroactively to 1 January of that year. Unpaid leave, a switch to part-time or a bonus that fails to materialise can wipe out the whole year. The defence is to reduce the tax-free allowance so the taxable remainder still clears the norm.
• Forgetting the norm is indexed annually. €48,013 is a 2026 figure. A salary that cleared the norm in 2025 may not clear it in 2026.
• Assuming the ruling follows the employee to a new employer. It does not transfer automatically. A new joint request is needed, with its own 4-month clock. On a company takeover the arrangement does transfer.
• Ignoring the cap on high earners. Above €262,000 the allowance stops growing at €78,600. Because the cap is applied per withholding agent and re-calculated pro rata, a mid-year employer change needs the cap split across both payrolls.
• Silently losing years to Dutch history. The 5 years is reduced by earlier stay or work in the Netherlands in the 25 years before arrival, with only narrow carve-outs: a maximum of 20 days per year worked in the Netherlands, and a maximum of 6 weeks per year (or once a maximum of 3 consecutive months) for holidays, family visits and other private reasons. A previous secondment surfaces here and shortens the run.
• Getting the transitional rows wrong. Employees whose beschikking applied by 31-12-2023 keep 30% and the current norm indefinitely. Employees who started in 2024 go to 27% at the current norm from 2027. Employees who started from 1-1-2025 go to 27% and the new, higher norm from 2027.
• Assuming partial non-resident status is still available. It cannot be elected from 1 January 2025. Only pre-2024 users keep it, and only through 2026. 2026 is the final year. Box 2 and box 3 positions built on that status need reworking for 2027.
• Relying on secondary summaries for the norms. business.gov.nl publishes the income standard as €46,107 and the under-30 standard as €35,048. Those are 2024 figures. The Belastingdienst 2026 numbers are €48,013 and €36,497. Any tool built off business.gov.nl alone is currently wrong by about €1,900. The announced 2027 norms are likewise stated in 2024 terms and will be indexed.
• Locking in the wrong ETK route. The actual-cost versus expatregeling choice binds for the whole year.

Rates, thresholds and deadlines

What	Value	Source
Maximum tax-free allowance percentage, 2026	30%	belastingdienst.nl, inhoud van de regeling
Confirmed in official 2026 payroll figures annex	30,00%	Cijferbijlage 2026, p.12
Alternative grossing basis	30/70 of salary excluding the allowance	belastingdienst.nl, inhoud van de regeling
Percentage from 1 January 2027	maximaal 27%	rijksoverheid.nl, expatregeling
Salary norm 2026, general	€48,013 taxable annual salary, excluding the targeted exemption	belastingdienst.nl, deskundigheidsvereiste / Cijferbijlage 2026
Salary norm 2026, under 30 with academic master's	€36,497	belastingdienst.nl, deskundigheidsvereiste / Cijferbijlage 2026
Income norm exemption	Scientific researchers at certain institutions and trainee specialists need not meet an income norm	belastingdienst.nl, deskundigheidsvereiste
Cap (aftopping), 2026 salary ceiling, WNT norm	€262,000	Cijferbijlage 2026, p.12 / belastingdienst.nl
Maximum tax-free allowance, 2026	€78,600	belastingdienst.nl, inhoud van de regeling
Legal basis for the cap	Art. 31a(8) Wet LB 1964, 30% of the maximum remuneration in art. 2.3 Wet normering topinkomens; recalculated pro rata per withholding agent	kennisgroepen.belastingdienst.nl KG:041:2025:5
Maximum duration	maximaal 5 jaar	belastingdienst.nl, beschikking
Distance criterion	More than 16 of the 24 months before the first Dutch working day, at more than 150 km from the Dutch border	belastingdienst.nl, definitie ingekomen werknemer
Border-region returner exception	Earlier Dutch work period began at most 8 years ago	belastingdienst.nl, definitie ingekomen werknemer
Look-back for duration reduction	Periods of stay or work in the Netherlands in the 25 years before arrival	belastingdienst.nl, beschikking
Carve-out, prior work days	Maximum 20 days per year worked in the Netherlands	belastingdienst.nl, beschikking
Carve-out, private stays	Maximum 6 weeks per year, or once a maximum of 3 consecutive months	belastingdienst.nl, beschikking
Application deadline for effect from day one	Within 4 months of starting with the new employer	belastingdienst.nl / business.gov.nl
Processing time	Within 8 weeks	belastingdienst.nl, verzoek formulier
Annual income-norm re-test	Required during the run; falling below voids the facility retroactively to 1 January of that year	belastingdienst.nl, beschikking
ETK versus expatregeling choice	Made in the first pay period of the calendar year, binds for the whole year	belastingdienst.nl, extraterritoriale kosten
Transitional, beschikking applied by 31-12-2023	30% and current salary norm in 2025-2026 and 2027 onwards	rijksoverheid.nl
Transitional, started in 2024	30% and current norm in 2025-2026, then 27% and current norm from 2027	rijksoverheid.nl
Transitional, started from 1-1-2025	30% and current norm in 2025-2026, then 27% and new norm from 2027	rijksoverheid.nl
2027 general salary norm, announced, in 2024 terms before indexation	€50,436	business.gov.nl amendment
2027 under-30 salary norm, announced, in 2024 terms before indexation	€38,388	business.gov.nl amendment
Partial non-resident status abolished	No longer electable from 1 January 2025	belastingdienst.nl
Partial non-resident transitional	Pre-2024 users may still use it through 2026	belastingdienst.nl
Employer change	The scheme does not transfer automatically; a new joint request is needed	business.gov.nl
Late application, resulting start date	Confirm before filing (read the start date on the beschikking)	not verified
Cap transitional for pre-2023 entrants	Confirm before filing	not verified

Worked example

Two employees, both with a valid beschikking running for the whole of 2026, both entered after 1 January 2025 (so 30% applies for 2026).

Employee A, salary including the allowance of €100,000. Tax-free allowance = 30% of €100,000 = €30,000. Taxable salary = €70,000, which exceeds €48,013, so the expertise requirement is met. The cap does not bite. Payroll runs €30,000 tax-free and €70,000 taxable.

Employee B, salary including the allowance of €300,000. Unrestricted, 30% would be €90,000. The cap applies: the maximum tax-free allowance for a full year 2026 is €78,600, reached at €262,000 or higher. So the allowance is €78,600 and taxable salary is €221,400, comfortably above the norm.

The break-even worth knowing (derived from the sourced figures, not itself a published figure): on a straight 30/70 split, taxable salary is 70% of the total, so the total package must exceed €48,013 ÷ 0.7, roughly €68,590, before the full 30% can be taken without breaching the norm. Below that, reduce the allowance so the taxable remainder still clears €48,013, rather than letting the year fail.

Sources

• Belastingdienst, Inhoud van de expatregeling
• Belastingdienst, Deskundigheidsvereiste
• Belastingdienst, Beschikking: geldigheid en toetsen voorwaarden
• Belastingdienst, Definitie ingekomen werknemer
• Belastingdienst, Extraterritoriale kosten en de expatregeling
• Belastingdienst, Verzoek loonheffingen expatregeling
• Belastingdienst, Partiële buitenlandse belastingplicht
• Belastingdienst, Cijferbijlage 2026 bij de Nieuwsbrief Loonheffingen: https://odb.belastingdienst.nl/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Cijferbijlage-2026-bij-Nieuwsbrief-LH-LH-209-1B61FD_TG.pdf
• Belastingdienst Kennisgroepen, KG:041:2025:5 Expatregeling, aftopping, wisseling van werkgever: https://kennisgroepen.belastingdienst.nl/publicaties/kg04120255-expatregeling-aftopping-wisseling-van-werkgever/
• Rijksoverheid, Expatregeling hoogopgeleide buitenlandse werknemers: https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/themas/werk/inkomstenbelasting/belastingvoordeel-buitenlandse-werknemers
• Business.gov.nl, The expat scheme (30% ruling) and the 27% amendment