If you’re an expat working in the Netherlands under the 30% ruling — the tax facility that lets employers reimburse part of your salary tax-free to offset the cost of relocating — a real change is arriving, and the timing matters depending on when your ruling started.
What the 30% ruling actually does
The 30% ruling exists to compensate international employees for the genuine extra costs of working abroad: double housing costs, higher cost of living, flights home, shipping household goods, visa and residence permit costs, and language courses for family members. Under the scheme, an employer can pay up to 30% of an eligible employee’s gross salary as a tax-free allowance instead of taxable wages, for a maximum of five years.
What’s changing, and when
From 1 January 2027, the maximum tax-free percentage drops from 30% to a flat 27% for the remainder of an employee’s five-year period. This replaces an earlier, more complicated plan (30% for 20 months, then 20%, then 10%) that had caused significant uncertainty among expats and employers — that phased-reduction plan has since been scrapped in favor of the simpler flat-27% approach.
Alongside the percentage cut, the minimum salary threshold required to qualify is rising. Based on 2026 figures, the standard salary norm of €48,013 will increase to roughly €52,521 from January 2027 (higher, indexed amounts apply from the actual effective date). A lower threshold exists for employees under 30 with a verified Master’s degree.
Who’s protected from the change
Transitional rules matter here. If your 30% ruling was already in effect by the end of 2023, you keep the full 30% rate for the remainder of your original five-year period — the 2027 change doesn’t apply to you. If your ruling started in 2024, 2025, or 2026, you’ll shift to the 27% rate once January 2027 arrives, for whatever portion of your five years remains.
One cap applies to everyone regardless of start date: the tax-free allowance only applies up to €262,000 in annual salary (the 2026 figure, indexed annually) — earnings above that aren’t eligible for the ruling’s tax break, and this income cap has applied to all beneficiaries since 1 January 2026, with no further transitional exceptions.
What to do about it
If you’re currently on the 30% ruling, check with your employer’s payroll or HR department which transitional category you fall into — the start date of your ruling, not today’s date, determines what happens in 2027. If you’re negotiating a Dutch job offer now, factor the 27% (not 30%) rate into any offer that would start after January 2027, and check the offered salary against the rising threshold before assuming you’ll qualify.
This is a developing area of Dutch tax policy — we’ll update this category as the Belastingdienst (Dutch Tax Authority) publishes further implementation guidance.
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