The 30% ruling explained for internationals

What the ruling is

The 30% ruling (30%-regeling, officially the expatregeling) is a tax break for people recruited from abroad. Your employer may pay up to 30% of your salary as a tax-free allowance, meant to cover the extra costs of living away from home. Nothing changes in your gross salary. What changes is that tax and national insurance are calculated on the other 70% only, so your net pay is higher, often by hundreds of euros a month.

In practice the allowance is often smaller than 30%, because of the salary norm below. To see your own figure, use the 30% ruling calculator.

Who qualifies

• Recruited from abroad. You lived more than 150 km from the Dutch border for more than 16 of the 24 months before your first working day in the Netherlands.
• Specific expertise. In practice this is a salary test. Your taxable salary, so the part after the allowance, must be at least €48,013 in 2026. If you are under 30 and hold a qualifying master's degree, the norm is €36,497. Scientific researchers at designated institutions and doctors in specialist training have no norm.
• An employer who applies. You and your employer apply together. Apply within four months of the first working day and the ruling starts from day one. Apply later and it starts from the month after the application.

How long it lasts

At most five years, counted in months. Earlier periods of living or working in the Netherlands in the previous 25 years are deducted, so someone who did a one-year master's here before leaving and coming back gets four years. The end date is on your ruling decision. Put it in your calendar. The month it ends is the month your net pay drops.

When you change employer, the ruling can move with you if the new employer applies within three months of the end of the old job and you still meet the salary norm. The remaining term carries over. You do not get a fresh five years.

Why the allowance is often less than 30%

The salary norm is applied to your salary after the allowance, and the allowance may never push your taxable salary below it. The result is a sliding scale:

Two consequences follow. Below the norm there is no benefit at all, which matters for part-time contracts and for a year with unpaid leave. And the salary cap of €262,000 (30% of the norm for top public salaries) limits the allowance to €78,600 a year. The old exemption from the cap for people who had the ruling before 2023 ended on 1 January 2026.

What changes on 1 January 2027

The maximum drops from 30% to 27% for rulings that started on or after 1 January 2024, and the salary norms for that group go up (the 2027 norms are set at 2024 prices as €50,436 general and €38,338 under 30, and will be indexed; the final figures come after Prinsjesdag). If your ruling was already applied in payroll in the last wage period of 2023, you are grandfathered: you keep 30% and the old norms for the rest of your term.

What the step costs depends on your salary. At €72,000 gross it is about €90 a month net. At €60,000 it is nothing, because the salary norm already limits the allowance to 20%. The calculator has a switch for the 27% rate.

The ruling and your savings abroad

Until the end of 2026, ruling holders whose ruling started before 2024 can opt for partial foreign tax liability: for box 2 and box 3 they are treated as non-resident, so savings, investments and property outside the Netherlands stay out of the Dutch return. This option was abolished for new cases from 2025 and disappears for everyone on 1 January 2027. From then on the home in Spain, the brokerage account in the US and the savings account back home all count in box 3. For many internationals that is a bigger change than the 27% step. Check where you stand with the box 3 calculator.

The ruling and toeslagen

Your income for benefits such as zorgtoeslag is your taxable income, so the tax-free allowance is left out. That helps less than it sounds, because the salary norm keeps a ruling holder's taxable salary at €48,013 or more, which is above the single income limit for zorgtoeslag. Under-30s with the lower norm, and households where the partner earns little, can qualify while the ruling runs. When the ruling ends, the taxable income jumps to the full gross and the benefit usually stops. Plan for both at once.

Two small extras

• With a ruling decision you can exchange a non-EU driving licence for a Dutch one without taking the exams (RDW).
• Most mortgage lenders calculate on your full gross salary, so the ruling raises your net income but not your maximum mortgage. Some lenders stress-test the income you will have after it ends.

When it ends: the cliff, and how to make it a non-event

Your gross salary stays the same, the allowance disappears, and the net difference lands on the same payslip. For salaries between €60,000 and €90,000 that is roughly €500 to €1,200 a month. Most people know the date and are still surprised by the amount.

Three things to do in the last year of a ruling: check whether your toeslagen will change, check whether foreign assets will enter box 3 (from 2027 they will for everyone), and if you are planning to buy a home, make sure the mortgage fits the post-ruling income.

Questions people ask

Coaching and education, not regulated advice. Your ruling decision and your payslip are the source of truth for your own case.