Term
5 years
The 30%-ruling can be granted for a maximum period of 5 years. This 5-year period is in principle reduced by any period of previous stay or employment in the Netherlands within the 25 years prior to the start of the employment in the Netherlands. Periods of previous stay or employment that started prior to these 25 years and ended within the 25 year-period will also be deducted from the maximum 5-year period for which the 30%-ruling can be granted:
For the application of this rule, certain periods of stay or work during the preceding 25 years are neglected, if in every calendar year of the period of 25 years, the expat:
- did not work in the Netherlands for more than 20 days per year;
- did not stay in the Netherlands for a total of more than 6 weeks for holiday, family visit or other personal circumstances per year;
- is allowed a one-off period of 3 consecutive months of stay in the Netherlands for holiday, family visit or other personal circumstances for the entire 25 years.
For the lookback period, every period of reduction is rounded up to whole months. E.g. For spending 1 week in the Netherlands, one month will in principle be deducted from the 5-year period.
Please note that entitlement to the 30%-ruling ends at the moment that an expat no longer has specific expertise which is scarce/unavailable on the Dutch labour market. This means that if an employee does not meet the minimum salary criterium in a certain year, he/she in principle loses entitlement to the 30%-ruling for that whole year and can no longer apply the 30%-ruling from that moment on.
