The Dutch 30%-ruling is the single biggest carrot the Netherlands offers international tech talent. Apply correctly and your hire's tax-free reimbursement covers 30% of their gross salary — meaning take-home pay roughly 13–18% higher than a Dutch-resident colleague on the same gross.
The ruling was a political punching-bag through 2023 and 2024. Parliament tried to phase it down, walked back the steepest cuts, then settled on a new shape for 2025 onwards. As of 2026 the rules are stable. Here's what they are, and how to use them.
What the ruling actually does
The 30%-ruling lets a Dutch employer pay up to 30% of the gross salary tax-free, as a notional reimbursement for the "extraterritorial costs" of being an expat. The employee doesn't need receipts. The employer doesn't need to demonstrate the costs. It's a flat, administratively clean benefit.
Practical effect at a €100,000 gross salary:
Net take-home rises by roughly €6,000–€7,500 per year compared with the same salary without the ruling. To the employee that's a meaningful raise; to you the employer, it costs nothing.
Who qualifies in 2026
Four conditions, all of which must be met:
- Recruited from abroad. The employee must have been hired while living outside the Netherlands. They can't have moved to NL, job-hunted locally, and then claimed the ruling.
- 150 km rule. In the 24 months before starting, they must have lived more than 150 km from the Dutch border for at least 16 of those months. (Belgium, much of Germany, and northern France don't qualify.)
- "Specific expertise" — i.e. a salary threshold. See the table below.
- Filed by the employer within 4 months of the employment start date. Miss the window and you can still file later, but the ruling only applies from the month of filing forward — not backdated.
General: minimum €46,660 taxable salary (i.e. salary after applying the 30%) — equivalent to €66,657 gross.
Under-30 with a master's degree: minimum €35,468 taxable — equivalent to €50,669 gross.
If your hire's gross drops below this in any month, the ruling is suspended for that year. Watch this around parental leave, sabbaticals, and 4-day workweeks.
How long it lasts
The ruling is granted for 5 years maximum (it used to be 8, then 5, then briefly 5 with phasing — now stable at 5).
From 2024 onwards, the benefit is also tiered over those 5 years. As of 2026 the structure looks like:
| Period | Tax-free portion |
|---|---|
| Months 1–20 | 30% of gross |
| Months 21–40 | 20% of gross |
| Months 41–60 | 10% of gross |
| Month 61+ | No ruling |
This "30/20/10" tiering only applies to new rulings issued from 1 January 2024 onwards. If your hire had a ruling issued before then, transitional rules let them keep 30% for the full five years.
The "partial non-resident" status
Alongside the 30% itself, a 30%-ruling holder used to be able to elect partial non-resident status for tax purposes — meaning Box 2 (substantial shareholdings) and Box 3 (savings & investments) were treated as if the person were still living abroad. This was a separate, very valuable benefit for high-net-worth hires.
This was abolished from 1 January 2025. New 30%-ruling holders now pay full Dutch tax on worldwide Box 2 and Box 3 income. Transitional protection: anyone whose ruling started before 1 January 2024 can still elect partial non-resident status through 2026.
If you're hiring someone with significant offshore investments or a foreign holding-company position, this matters. Get the structure reviewed before the move, not after.
The employer process — six weeks, end to end
- Week -2 (pre-offer). Confirm the 150 km rule and the salary threshold. If marginal, restructure the offer (e.g. signing bonus, equity) so monthly gross stays above the floor every single month.
- Week 0 (offer signed). Add a clause in the employment contract: "Where the 30%-ruling applies, gross salary is split into a taxable component and a tax-free reimbursement of 30%."
- Week 0–4 (start date). Employee arrives, registers at the Gemeente (BSN), gets a Dutch bank account, signs in to the employer's payroll.
- Week 4–8. Joint application filed by employer + employee with the Belastingdienst. Standard turnaround is 6–12 weeks for the ruling itself.
- Decision. Once issued, the ruling is backdated to the employment start date, and payroll re-runs the months between.
What to budget for
The 30%-ruling application itself is straightforward administrative work. If you're using a payroll provider that knows what they're doing, it's typically €350–€600 per hire, all-in. If you're using a US-headquartered global PEO that "supports" the Netherlands, expect to pay much more and to wait longer.
Hiring international engineers?
We run payroll & 30%-ruling applications for ~80 expat hires a year across NL and UK. Quick call if you'd like us to handle yours.