30% ruling 2026: salary thresholds, cap, and conditions

What is the 30% ruling in 2026?

The Belastingdienst now also refers to it as the expatregeling. If you work as an employee and meet the conditions, your employer may in 2026 reimburse up to 30% of your salary including the reimbursement tax-free for extraterritorial costs.

Main conditions in 2026

• You must be an employee of the employer applying for the ruling.
• You must have specific expertise. In 2026 that generally means taxable annual salary of more than EUR 48,013, or more than EUR 36,497 if you are under 30 and have a qualifying master's degree.
• You were recruited from abroad.
• You meet the 150-kilometre test: in the 24 months before your first Dutch workday, you lived more than 150 kilometres from the Dutch border for more than 16 months.
• You have a valid Belastingdienst decision. The ruling can run for up to 5 years, but previous periods in the Netherlands may reduce the available term.

Scientific researchers at designated research institutions and doctors in specialist training are not subject to the salary threshold.

Important figures for 2026

• Maximum tax-free reimbursement: EUR 78,600 per year
• You only reach that full cap if your annual salary is at least EUR 262,000 and you use the ruling for the full year
• If the ruling applies for only part of the year, the cap is reduced proportionally

Applying and changing employers

You apply together with your employer. If the request is filed within 4 months after your start date, the ruling can apply from your first working day. If filed later, it only starts from the month after the application.

If you change employer, whether the decision can continue depends in part on whether the old and new employer belong to the same group of withholding agents. If not, the continuation needs to be assessed again.

What has really changed?

The current Belastingdienst information for 2026 presents the regime as a 30% ruling with an annual cap. The old 30/20/10 step-down explanation does not match the current 2026 Belastingdienst guidance.

Also, from tax year 2025 onward you generally can no longer opt for partial foreign taxpayer status. Only employees who were already using the expatregeling before 2024 can still rely on transitional rules through 2026.

When should you get advice?

If you are changing employers, have share options, own a home, or hold assets abroad, it is worth getting the ruling calculated properly. The interaction with box 2, box 3, and transitional rules can be material.