PhD Council

30% Ruling

The 30% ruling is an option for employees that move to the Netherlands for work to receive a portion of their salary (up to 30%) tax-free. This is applied monthly to your income.

Criteria

Some of the conditions to be met in order to obtain the 30% ruling in the Netherlands are:

  • The employee must be transferred or recruited from outside of the Netherlands
  • The employee must not have lived within 150km of the Dutch border for 17 months out of the previous 24 months
  • The employee’s salary must meet the minimum requirement (this changes from year to year)
    • This minimum amount is lowered for PhD candidates under 30 years of age
  • The employee must be a highly skilled worker with skills that are coveted in the Netherlands
  • In some cases, the requirement that the employee is hired from abroad is lifted if the masters degree or PhD was completed in the Netherlands, as long as the company hires the candidate within a year of completing their studies

More information on the criteria to be met can be found among the links at the bottom of this page.

Application

The application for the 30% ruling should be submitted by the employee and employer. In most cases, the university will reach out to a PhD to complete this together close to the start of their studies. The documents required for the application include:

  • Copy of employment contract
  • Copy of curriculum vitae
  • Proof of residency over the 24 months prior to the start of your employment if you have lived/stayed part of the previous 24 months in the Netherlands or 150 km from the Dutch border. Evidence of at least 17 months of your living address(es) must be provided.
  • If you were a PhD student in the Netherlands or in any other EU countries within 150 km of the Dutch border before the start of employment, but before the start of that PhD-student employment, you lived beyond this region, a copy of the letter of employment as PhD student, all residence addresses 24 months before the PhD employment and copy PhD diploma are required. You must also have obtained your PhD degree less than one year before the current employment, or you will obtain it soon.
  • Addendum to the letter conditions of employment. Both employee and employer should sign this.

Notably, the 30% ruling could have implications for your pension and unemployment benefits.

Links