The 30% ruling in the Netherlands: conditions, salary and how to apply

The 30% ruling is a Dutch tax rule for people who are hired from another country to work in the Netherlands. Your employer pays up to 30% of your salary as a tax-free allowance, and you pay income tax on the other 70%. It is also called the expat ruling, and from 2027 it becomes the 27% ruling.

The allowance covers the extra costs of moving to another country and living there. You do not have to prove those costs or keep receipts, because the percentage is applied as a flat amount on every payslip. The 30% ruling runs for up to five years.

How much is the 30% ruling worth?

Your gross salary stays the same with the 30% ruling. What changes is how much of that salary is taxed, so the gain shows up in your net pay each month.

The table is for a standard case at the 2026 tax rates, and the figures come from our Dutch net salary calculator. You can run it with your own salary. Treat the result as an estimate, because pension contributions and other personal factors also move your net pay.

At €55,000 the tax-free part is €6,987, which is far less than 30% of the salary. The 30% ruling may not push your taxable salary below the salary minimum, so the tax-free part is cut until it fits. The salary section below has those numbers.

There is also a cap at the top. In 2026 the 30% applies to salary up to €262,000, which makes €78,600 the largest tax-free amount anyone can get in a year.

Who qualifies for the 30% ruling

A standard application has five conditions, and you need all of them.

1. You were hired from outside the Netherlands. The recruitment has to start while you still live abroad.
2. You lived more than 150 km from the Dutch border for more than 16 of the 24 months before your first working day.
3. Your salary meets the minimum for your situation.
4. Your employer runs a Dutch payroll. In tax terms, your employer is a Dutch withholding agent.
5. You and your employer apply together. If the application is in within four months of your first working day, the 30% ruling counts from that first day.

A standard application has no separate test of your degree or your profession. The law reads a salary above the minimum as proof that your skills are hard to find in the Netherlands.

Plenty of people fail one of the five conditions and still get the 30% ruling through an exception. Graduates of a Dutch master's degree and researchers are the two biggest groups, and both are covered further down. If you want to go through the conditions one by one for your own situation, read do I qualify for the 30% ruling.

The 30% ruling salary requirement in 2026 and 2027

These are taxable salaries, which means the amount that is left after the tax-free part is taken out. They are indexed every January. Your holiday allowance counts towards the minimum, and a bonus that is not guaranteed does not. If you start partway through a year, the minimum is applied pro rata.

The minimum is also the reason for the smaller tax-free part at €55,000 in the first table. You get the full 30% from a gross salary of €68,590 in a standard case, and from €52,139 if you are under 30 with a master's degree. Between the minimum and that point you still have the 30% ruling, with a smaller tax-free part. A standard case on €60,000 keeps €11,987 tax-free, which is about 20% of the salary.

The lower minimum for under 30s stops on your 30th birthday. From then on the standard minimum applies for the rest of your ruling, so a starting salary that worked at 27 has to grow before you turn 30. The guide on 30% ruling salary thresholds works through more examples.

The 150 km rule

The 150 km rule looks at where you lived in the 24 months before your first working day in the Netherlands. You pass when you lived more than 150 km from the Dutch border for more than 16 of those 24 months.

The distance is measured in a straight line from the border. Belgium and Luxembourg fall inside the 150 km zone completely, and so do parts of Germany, France and the United Kingdom. Someone hired from Brussels, Cologne or Lille does not meet this condition, while someone hired from Paris, Berlin or Madrid does.

The rule leaves some room. If fewer than eight of the 24 months were spent inside the zone, or in the Netherlands itself, you still pass.

If you moved to the Netherlands before you were hired, Belastingdienst will ask whether you were recruited from abroad. That question is decided on evidence about where your life was based. The guide on the 30% ruling if you lived in the Netherlands before covers what Belastingdienst checks.

The 30% ruling after studying in the Netherlands

Many graduates think they are excluded because they already lived here when they got the job. There is an exception for people who finish a Dutch master's degree and start a qualifying job soon after they graduate. For this group the 150 km rule does not apply, and the lower salary minimum applies while you are under 30.

How soon "soon after" has to be is the grey area. Belastingdienst reads it strictly, usually as one to two months. Courts have looked at the whole case, and they have accepted a longer gap in some rulings and refused it in others. A gap of a few months is the most common reason a graduate case becomes borderline, and an orientation year permit (zoekjaar) is the strongest explanation for that gap.

Two guides go deeper on this route. One covers the 30% ruling after a Dutch master's, and the other covers freelance income during your studies.

Researchers have their own route. Scientific researchers at designated Dutch institutions and doctors in specialist training have no salary minimum at all, and a PhD candidate in a salaried research role usually falls in this group.

How long the 30% ruling lasts

The 30% ruling lasts five years at most, counted from your first working day.

Time you already spent in the Netherlands shortens it. Any period you lived or worked here in the 25 years before your first working day is taken off the five years. For a graduate this includes the study itself, so a two-year master's leaves about three years of the 30% ruling.

The 30% ruling can also end early. It stops when your job ends, unless you start with a new employer within three months. It also stops when your salary drops below the minimum.

Your end date is stated in the decision letter from Belastingdienst.

The 27% ruling: what changes in 2027

From 1 January 2027 the rate goes from 30% to 27% for everyone whose ruling started in 2024 or later. From that date most people will know it as the 27% ruling.

On a €70,000 salary the tax-free part goes from €21,000 to €18,900 a year. The salary minimums rise in the same month, to about €50,436 for a standard case and about €38,338 for under 30s with a master's degree. The conditions and the five-year term stay as they are.

A second change gets less attention. Partial non-resident taxpayer status, which kept some foreign savings and investments out of Dutch tax, ended in 2025. A transitional rule lets people with an older ruling keep it through 2026, and from 2027 it is gone for everyone.

In 2025 some parties discussed bringing the full 30% back. That is discussion and it is not law. The guide on what changes in 2027 has the detail by start year.

How to apply for the 30% ruling

You cannot apply on your own. The application goes to Belastingdienst from you and your employer together, and your employer files it as the withholding agent.

1. Before you sign, the contract or an addendum to it states that the 30% ruling applies to your salary.
2. On your first working day the four-month period starts.
3. Within those four months, you and your employer send the application to Belastingdienst with the documents for your situation.
4. Belastingdienst usually takes 8 to 12 weeks to decide.
5. After the decision, your employer applies the 30% ruling in payroll and corrects the payslips since your first working day.

The deadline that matters is the four months. If your first working day is 2 November 2026, the application has to reach Belastingdienst by 2 March 2027.

A later application still works. The 30% ruling then starts on the first day of the month after you applied, and the months before that are lost. On a €70,000 salary each lost month is about €880.

The four months run from your first working day whether your employer knows about the deadline or not, so raise the 30% ruling before you sign. HR teams can read the 30% ruling for employers.

Belastingdienst reads the application form, the employment contract and the proof for your situation, such as where you lived in the last 24 months or when you graduated. A straightforward case is mostly paperwork. A borderline case has to be explained in a cover letter, with the evidence set out in the order Belastingdienst checks it. Borderline cases get approved when the application is done properly.

Changing employer with the 30% ruling

You keep the 30% ruling when you change jobs, as long as the new job starts within three months of the old one ending. The 30% ruling does not move to the new employer by itself. Your new employer files a new application with you, and the new salary has to meet the minimum again.

The five years do not restart. You continue with the time you had left. The guide on changing jobs with the 30% ruling has the order to do it in.

What else comes with the 30% ruling

With the 30% ruling you can exchange a foreign driving licence for a Dutch one without taking the Dutch driving test. The same goes for a partner and children who are registered at your address.

Your employer can also reimburse international school fees for your children tax-free. That comes on top of the 30%.

Borderline 30% ruling cases

Many applications do not fit the five conditions cleanly. These are the situations we see most often.

• You lived or studied in the Netherlands before you were hired.
• There is a gap of several months between your graduation and your first working day.
• You had freelance income or a KvK registration during your studies.
• You are in the Netherlands on a partner's permit.
• You are changing employer, or an earlier application was refused.

None of these ends a case on its own. Each one means the application has to be explained and backed with evidence. The Casebook goes through twelve borderline cases.

Common questions about the 30% ruling

Is the 30% ruling being abolished?

No. The 30% ruling stays, and the rate goes down to 27% from 1 January 2027 for rulings that started in 2024 or later.

Can I get the 30% ruling if I already live in the Netherlands?

Sometimes. It works if you were recruited while you still lived abroad, or if you finished a Dutch master's degree and started work soon after. If you moved here first and found the job later, the case depends on where your life was based before you were hired.

Can I apply for the 30% ruling after four months?

Yes. The 30% ruling then starts on the first day of the month after the application, and the months before that are not paid back.

Do I lose the 30% ruling if I change jobs?

No, as long as the new job starts within three months and your new employer files a new application with you. The time you had left carries over.

How long does the 30% ruling last?

Five years at most. Earlier periods of living or working in the Netherlands are taken off the five years.

Can a freelancer get the 30% ruling?

Not as a freelancer. The 30% ruling needs an employment contract with an employer that runs a Dutch payroll.

What is the 27% ruling?

The 27% ruling is the 30% ruling at its 2027 rate. The conditions are the same, and the tax-free part is 27% of your salary.