1. Employment/ hired from abroad

2. Specific expertise/ salary level

3. Scarcity

1. Employment/ hired from abroad

The ruling is meant to attract foreign employees with specific expertise to the Netherlands. In that respect, the expatriate must be living outside the Netherlands when hired or assigned to work in the Netherlands.

If the expatriate moves to the Netherlands and is hired after already having moved to the Netherlands, then the expatriate is considered to be hired locally and may fail the employment test. The expatriate will then need to strongly argue that he/she moved to the Netherlands for employment reasons only. Having signed a definite employment offer before moving to the Netherlands / registered at the Dutch municipal system can be used as an argument to this extent.

Plese note that the employee is not considered to be hired from abroad if he/she was living in the foreign border region (within a radius of 150 kilometre from the Dutch borders) for more than 8 months in the 2 years prior to the employment start in the Netherlands.

2. Specific expertise/ salary level

The ruling is meant to attract employees with specific expertise to the Netherlands. The Dutch tax authorities determine whether the employee possesses specific expertise based on a minimum salary level.

Employees with a minimum income of more than € 46.107 (excluding the maximum 30% cost allowance) are automatically deemed to have specific expertise. This salary level refers to the employee’s wage that is subject to tax excluding any tax-exempt reimbursements, which means that the salary should be at least gross € 65.867,14 (2024) including the maximum 30% cost allowance.

For employees with a Master´s Degree below the age of 30, there is a reduced minimum salary level of € 35.048 (excluding the 30% cost allowance). This means that their salary should be at least gross € 50.068,57 (2024) including the maximum 30% cost allowance. When reaching the age of 30 they will need to meet the general minimum taxable salary level of  € 46.107 (2024) in order to remain entitled to ht 30% ruling. In order to qualify for the 30% ruling the Master's Decree should meet Dutch standards. In this respect, an official evalutation of the IDW/Nuffic is required.

Foreign employees working in the higher education/research sector or training to become a medical specialist at appointed institutions in the Netherlands can even be eligible for the 30%-ruling without a minimum salary condition.

3. Scarcity test

Finally, upon request the employer must prove that they needed to hire the employee from outside the Netherlands because it was difficult to find an employee with similar qualifications on the Dutch labour market. In this respect there are three conditions which the tax authorities can review in order to determine if specific expertise is scarce on the Dutch labour market, namely:

a. the level of education;

b. the work experience relevant for the position;

c. the salary level compared to the home country.

These conditions may be evaluated independendly by the Dutch tax authorities for the evaluation of the scarcity on the Dutch labour market.

a. Education

Generally, the Dutch tax authorities will consider a business or university degree as a passing requirement. In the absence of such a degree, specific courses or other means can be used to argue education proficiency levels.

b. Experience

As a rule of thumb, the Dutch tax authorities expect the employee to have at least 2.5 years of relevant work experience before he/she can argue to have specific expertise. In this respect, relevant relates to having experience in the same field of work and on a similar level.

c. Salary level compared to home country

The salary level will be evaluated in relation to salary levels in the home country i.e. someone coming from India and earning € 40,000 per annum should be considered as a higher level employee in India.