A rejection letter has landed. The 30% ruling (becoming the 27% ruling from 2027) for one of your international hires has been declined by Belastingdienst. That is a bad day for the employee and an awkward one for HR, but it is not necessarily the end of the case. This guide walks employers through how to read the decision and what the practical next steps look like.
Read the decision, not the summary
Every rejection cites a specific ground. The employee usually reads the top line and reacts to that. What matters is the exact reason quoted, because it determines which route forward is realistic:
- Distance rule (150 km) not met for the 24 months before start.
- Incoming-employee condition not met.
- Salary norm not met at the moment of assessment.
- Timing between graduation or arrival and first working day.
- Prior stay in NL in the 25 years before start reduces or removes the term.
- Documentation gap, address history unclear, or contract clause missing.
The route forward is different for each. Do not draft a response until the specific ground is understood.
The bezwaar window is 6 weeks
A formal objection (bezwaar) has a strict window: 6 weeks from the date on the decision letter. Miss it and the decision stands, with much narrower options afterwards. If the letter is already close to the deadline, that is the first constraint to plan around.
Bezwaar is not always the right answer. If the ground is factually correct and unchanged (the employee genuinely lived inside the 150 km zone for the lookback period, and there is no evidence to the contrary), objecting rarely changes the outcome. If the ground is a documentation gap or a misreading of the timeline, a well-argued objection with new evidence can.
Common evidence gaps we see
- Address history in the 24 months before start not documented, especially where the employee moved several times.
- Employment contract that did not separate the tax-free allowance from the taxable salary.
- Filing after the 4-month window, so retroactive effect was lost and the salary norm was assessed against a later reference point.
- Master's graduate exception raised late, without the diploma or age documentation attached.
- Prior NL stays not disclosed upfront, then discovered during review.
Each of these has a different fix. Some are curable by objection with new evidence. Some are not.
When a fresh application makes more sense
If the rejection is tied to something that will change (the employee is about to move employers, or a salary review will lift them above the norm), sometimes the right move is to accept the decision on the current employment and prepare a stronger fresh application at the next trigger point, within the applicable window.
A fresh application on the same facts, without a change, is rarely productive. Belastingdienst will read it against the same evidence.
What HR should do this week
- Locate the decision letter and note the date. Confirm days remaining in the 6-week window.
- Identify the specific ground cited.
- Pull the case file: contract, address history, diploma, prior applications, payroll references.
- Get an independent evaluation of whether bezwaar is worth filing, and on what grounds, before drafting anything.
- Keep the employee informed. A rejection they hear about second-hand becomes a retention problem fast.
How we can help
Rejected applications are one of the borderline cases we specifically focus on. We evaluate the letter and the case file, then give you an honest read on whether bezwaar is worth filing, and on what grounds, before anything is drafted.
We don’t predict outcomes. We prepare and present your application in the strongest possible way. Belastingdienst makes the final decision.
Received a rejection? Let us look at the letter and the case file.