30% Ruling Netherlands 2026: Requirements, Salary and the 2027 Change

The 30% ruling is one of the most valuable tax benefits for people who move to the Netherlands for a job. If you are researching the 30 ruling Netherlands requirements, the 30 ruling minimum salary for 2026, or how a 30 ruling calculator arrives at its numbers, this guide explains the rules in plain English, including the reduction planned for 2027.

Key takeaways

• The 30% ruling lets an employer pay up to 30% of your salary as a tax-free allowance if you were recruited from abroad.
• You must have lived more than 150 km from the Dutch border for at least 16 of the 24 months before starting work.
• Your taxable salary must exceed an annually indexed threshold, roughly €48,000 in 2026, with a lower threshold for under-30s with a master's degree.
• Employer and employee apply jointly to the Belastingdienst, within four months of starting for retroactive effect.
• The ruling lasts a maximum of five years, and under current law the percentage drops to 27% from 2027.
• It is for employees only, so self-employed DAFT holders generally cannot use it.

Part 1: What the 30% ruling is

The Dutch tax authority, the Belastingdienst, recognises that people recruited from abroad face extra costs such as trips home, double housing and language lessons. Instead of reimbursing these costs one by one, the 30% ruling allows the employer to pay a flat tax-free allowance of up to 30% of the total remuneration. In practice the gross salary is usually split into a 70% taxable part and a 30% tax-free part, which raises net pay without raising the employer's cost.

When the ruling applies, the employer can also reimburse international school fees tax-free, separately from the allowance.

Part 2: 30 ruling Netherlands requirements

To qualify, the employee and the employer must meet several conditions at the same time.

1. Recruited from abroad

You must be hired from outside the Netherlands, or posted by a foreign group company, by an employer that withholds Dutch wage tax. Self-employed people are not eligible, which is why the ruling is generally not available to Americans living in the Netherlands on a DAFT self-employed permit.

2. The 150 km rule

For at least 16 of the 24 months before your first working day in the Netherlands, you must have lived more than 150 km from the Dutch border. Anyone moving directly from the United States meets this easily, but time spent living in the Netherlands, Belgium or nearby parts of Germany before the job can disqualify you.

3. Specific expertise via a salary threshold

Expertise that is scarce on the Dutch labour market is tested mainly through salary. Your taxable salary, meaning salary excluding the tax-free allowance, must exceed a threshold that is indexed every year. For 2026 the general threshold is roughly €48,000, and a lower threshold of roughly €36,000 applies to people under 30 with a master's degree, Dutch or equivalent foreign. The 2026 thresholds are set annually, so confirm the exact figures with the Belastingdienst.

Part 3: The 30 ruling minimum salary in 2026

The most common mistake with a 30 ruling calculator is applying the threshold to the gross salary. Because the threshold applies to taxable salary after the allowance is taken out, the gross salary needed to use the full 30% is higher. With a threshold of roughly €48,000, you need a gross salary of about €68,600 to split it 70/30 and still stay above the threshold, since €48,000 divided by 0.7 is roughly €68,600.

If your gross salary is lower but the taxable part can still clear the threshold, the ruling can still apply with a smaller tax-free percentage. Payroll providers handle this automatically, but it explains why two colleagues with the ruling can receive different percentages. Certain scientific researchers and medical specialists in training are exempt from the salary threshold.

There is also an upper limit. The allowance is capped by reference to the public-sector salary norm (WNT), which is roughly €250,000 or more and rises every year. Thirty percent of that norm is the most you can receive tax-free, so the cap only matters for very high earners.

Part 4: 30 ruling application

The application is made jointly by the employer and the employee to the Belastingdienst using its standard request form. The employer usually prepares it with payroll or a tax adviser, and the employee co-signs.

1. Agree in the employment contract that the 30% ruling will be applied and how the salary will be split.
2. Collect proof of your previous foreign residence and, if relevant, your age and master's degree.
3. Submit the joint request to the Belastingdienst.
4. Once it is approved, payroll applies the allowance through monthly wage tax.

Timing is important. If the request is filed within four months of your first working day, the ruling applies from the start of employment. If it is filed later, it applies only from the first day of the month after the request. Decisions can take a few months, so file early.

If you change employers in the Netherlands, the ruling can continue provided you start the new job within about three months and the new job also meets the salary requirement, but a new joint request is still needed.

Part 5: Duration, the 2027 change and other limits

The ruling lasts a maximum of five years. Earlier periods of residence or work in the Netherlands can shorten that period.

The rules have changed several times recently. A plan introduced for 2024 would have stepped the allowance down from 30% to 20% and then 10% over the five years, but that stepped approach was replaced. Under current law, the maximum allowance stays at 30% through 2026 and drops to 27% from 1 January 2027, with the salary thresholds expected to be adjusted accordingly. Transitional rules apply to some people who already had the ruling before 2024, so existing holders should check their own position.

The partial non-resident tax status has also largely gone. Holders used to be able to opt to be treated as non-residents for box 2 and box 3, so most foreign investments were not taxed in the Netherlands. That option ended for most people from 2025, with a transitional period to the end of 2026 for some who already had the ruling in 2023. For Americans with sizeable U.S. investment portfolios, the Dutch box 3 tax on savings and investments is therefore relevant from day one.

The driver's license exchange

One practical benefit Americans often discover late is the 30 ruling drivers license exchange. U.S. state licenses generally cannot be exchanged for a Dutch license without taking the Dutch driving tests, but 30% ruling holders and their family members have historically been able to exchange a valid foreign license without a test through the RDW. You can generally drive on your U.S. license for 185 days after registering in the Netherlands, so check the current RDW conditions and apply before that period ends.

Part 6: A simple worked example

The following example is illustrative and rounded, and it ignores pension contributions, holiday allowance and personal circumstances. Dutch box 1 income tax in 2026 has a first band of roughly 36%, a second of roughly 37.5%, and a top rate of 49.5% above roughly €78,000, with tax credits that shrink as income rises.

Take a gross salary of €80,000 a year. Without the ruling, all €80,000 is taxable, and after income tax and tax credits net pay comes to roughly €54,000.

With the ruling, €24,000 is paid tax-free and only €56,000 is taxable. Less income falls in the higher bands and the tax credits are larger at that level, so net pay comes to roughly €66,000. That is about €12,000 more per year, or around $13,800, for the same employer cost.

From 2027, at 27%, the tax-free part on the same salary would be €21,600, and the annual benefit would fall by very roughly €1,000 to €1,500. Use these figures only as orders of magnitude and ask your employer's payroll provider for an exact calculation.

Summary

The 30% ruling can add five figures to your annual net income for up to five years, but only if you meet the 150 km rule, clear the salary threshold on your taxable salary rather than your gross salary, and file the joint request with the Belastingdienst within four months of starting. Under current law the maximum drops to 27% from 2027, the partial non-resident option has largely ended, and the ruling is not available to the self-employed.

If you are negotiating a Dutch job offer, it is worth raising the ruling before you sign. NL Bridge can handle the process end to end, from the permit and municipal registration to coordinating the 30% ruling request and the driver's license exchange with your employer.

Photos: Erik Wannee / CC0 (Wikimedia Commons)