Herewith we inform you on some recent developments regarding the 30%-ruling.

Minimum salary standard
In order to qualify for the 30% ruling, an employee should have specific expertise. An employee is deemed to have specific expertise if his annual taxable salary is more than EUR 35,770 (2012: EUR 35,000). For employees with a master’s degree and younger than 30 years the minimum salary standard is EUR 27,190 (2012: EUR 26,605).

150 kilometre test
One of the conditions of the 30% ruling is that the employee lived more than 150 kilometres from the Dutch border during more than twothird of the 24 months preceding the employment in the Netherlands. Currently some court cases are in process regarding this condition, with various decisions, positive as well as negative. We will follow the proceeding of these court cases closely. As long as the Dutch Supreme Court has not taken a decision, we advise to take action if not meeting this condition is the reason for not qualifying for the 30% ruling.

This condition was also applicable to employees who had been employed in the Netherlands before, and who were employed in the Netherlands again. This was not aimed however, and therefore this condition has been relaxed with retroactive effect until January 1, 2012. If an employee has worked in the Netherlands before, and at the start of this previous employment he fulfilled this condition, this condition will not apply for the new employment in the Netherlands, provided that the previous employment started not more than 8 years ago.

End of 30% ruling
The term of the 30% ruling originally ended on the last day of the employment in the Netherlands. With retroactive effect until January 1, 2012 the term will end on the last day of the wage period following the wage period in which the employment was ended. This enables employers to apply the 30% ruling on back payments such as vacation allowance, vacation days not taken and bonusses. This relaxation, however, does not apply to outbound employees (“Nedeco-situation”).

If you have any questions on the above, do not hesitate to contact us.