Starting a business with the 30% ruling

Starting your own business with the 30% ruling

Whether as a foreign company or a private individual, you may be toying with the idea of starting a business in the Netherlands. This is the last in a series of three articles discussing the possibilities open to you. In the first article we discussed the tax considerations of starting a business in the Netherlands, In the second article we discussed the tax considerations of contractors & freelancers. In this third and final article we will discuss how to start a business in the Netherlands with the 30% ruling.

If you are currently working for an employer under the 30%-ruling, it is possible to continue to make use of the ruling if you wish to start your own business in the Netherlands.

In principle there are two possible options:

• Working through a payroll company. In this instance the payroll company is the employer and they will process the 30%-ruling through the payroll administration.
• Setting up a BV (company) and becoming an employee of it.

In principle the requirements of the 30%-ruling still apply if you start up a company yourself.

Requirements for the Dutch 30% ruling

To be entitled for the 30% ruling all of the following conditions have to be met:

• You work for an employer liable to withhold Dutch payroll tax on your salary;
• You have to agree in writing with your employer that the 30% ruling is applicable;
• You have to be transferred from abroad to a Dutch employer or you have to be recruited from abroad by a Dutch employer;
• You did not reside within 150 kilometers from the Dutch border for the last 18 out of 24 months at the time of hiring;
• Your taxable salary is at least € 35.770 per year (excluding the 30% ruling);
• You need to have specific expertise which is scarcely available in the Netherlands.

Specific expertise requirements

For the requirement of specific expertise that is scarce or absent on the Dutch labor market, a minimum salary requirement was introduced with effect from 2012. This salary requirement (of at least € 35.770 per year in 2013) replaced the obligation to prove the level of education and relevant work experience. This information may still be relevant though, if scarcity has to be proven when in a specific industry almost every employee will fulfill the minimum salary requirements (for example professional football players).