Early discontinuation of 30% ruling

The 30% ruling represents a special tax facility for expatriate workers who boast particular expertise that is considered thin on the ground in the Netherlands. The scheme entitles these expatriate workers to tax-exempt compensation for extraterritorial costs, i.e. the additional costs associated with their having their abode outside their country of origin, by allowing them to collect 30% of their aggregate remuneration on a tax-exempt basis. 

The Court of Appeal for Arnhem-Leeuwarden recently upheld a District Court ruling concerning the early discontinuation of the scheme for an expatriate worker who, having successfully applied for the 30% ruling, resigned his position with his original employer, moved house and five months later went on to accept a position elsewhere. 

It is permissible while under the 30% regime to change jobs on condition that no more than three months should elapse between the date of termination of the old position and the date of commencement of the new one. The employee in question had failed to satisfy this criterion. The 30% regime does not permit workers to remain unavailable to the labour market for a period of their own choice. The employee argued that he had been busy looking for suitable accommodation and had landed a new position within three months of having found somewhere to live. The District Court was not convinced that the employee could not have combined his house-hunting activities with a spot of job-hunting, with the Court of Appeal adding that by no means should it be inferred from the three-month term that spending less than three months looking for a new position would be deemed by the authorities to suffice.

Read more about the 30% ruling.