30% Ruling Calculator Netherlands 2026: How Much You Save

The 30% ruling calculator question most expats ask is not “do I qualify?” but “how much does it actually save me?” This guide shows the calculation with the 2026 Box 1 rates and tax credit tables, the 2026 salary norms, four worked examples, the drop to 27% in 2027 and the end of the Box 3 advantage.

If you just want the numbers fast, try our 30% ruling calculator. If you want to understand the calculation behind it, read on.

💡 Looking for a complete banking comparison? Read Best banking for expats in the Netherlands 2026 — covers ABN, ING, Bunq, Wise, Revolut & 5 others by expat use case.

What Is the 30% Ruling?

The 30% ruling (30%-regeling, or expatregeling) is a Dutch tax benefit for employees recruited from abroad. Instead of a tax-free reimbursement of the actual extraterritorial costs, your employer may pay up to 30% of your salary, including the allowance, tax-free (Belastingdienst). Your employer is not obliged to pay the full 30%, and the allowance may be lower. You pay Dutch income tax on the remainder. The decision lasts for a maximum of 5 years.

The full guide on eligibility and the application process is in The 30% Ruling in the Netherlands 2026: Complete Guide. This article assumes you are eligible and focuses on the calculation.

What Is the Minimum Salary for the 30% Ruling in 2026?

For the standard route, your annual salary excluding the tax-free allowance must be above €48,013 in 2026 (€46,660 in 2025). For people under 30 with a Dutch academic master’s degree or an equivalent foreign degree, the norm is €36,497 (€35,468 in 2025). Scientific researchers at designated research institutions and doctors in training to become a specialist can always use the ruling, and their salary does not matter (Belastingdienst, checked 8 October 2026).

Why the gross figures are higher: the norm applies to the salary after the allowance. For a full 30% allowance you need a salary of at least norm ÷ 0.7: €48,013 ÷ 0.7 = €68,590 for the standard route, and €36,497 ÷ 0.7 ≈ €52,139 under the master’s route. On a lower salary the employer can pay a lower allowance, as long as the salary excluding the allowance stays above the norm.

The cap on the allowance: the allowance is paid over a salary of up to €262,000 (the WNT limit for top salaries), which gives a maximum tax-free allowance of €78,600 from 2026 for every expat (Rijksoverheid, Belastingdienst). If you use the ruling for only part of the year, the maximum is proportionate.

How Do You Calculate What the 30% Ruling Saves?

Work out your net pay twice for the same gross salary, once with the tax-free allowance and once without it, using the 2026 Box 1 rates and tax credits. The difference is your estimated annual benefit.

Step 1: Establish Your Gross Salary

Start with your agreed annual gross salary, the figure before tax. Find it on your employment contract or payslip.

Step 2: Calculate the Tax-Free Allowance

The maximum is 30% of your salary, but the salary that remains must be above the norm. Example on €75,000 gross: €75,000 × 0.30 = €22,500 tax-free, which leaves €52,500, above the €48,013 norm.

Step 3: Identify Your Taxable Income Under the Ruling

Example: €75,000 − €22,500 = €52,500 taxable income

Step 4: Apply the 2026 Box 1 Rates and Tax Credits

For people below AOW age, the 2026 Box 1 rates are (Belastingdienst):

• Up to €38,883: 35.75%
• €38,883 to €78,426: 37.56%
• Above €78,426: 49.50%

Apply each percentage only to the part of taxable income in that band. Then subtract the tax credits. The 2026 general tax credit is €3,115 up to an income of €29,736, then falls by 6.398% of the income above that, to zero at €78,426. The 2026 labour tax credit is €5,685 at most and falls by 6.51% of the labour income above €45,592 (Belastingdienst tables).

Example, €75,000 gross, no allowance: tax on €75,000 = €38,883 × 35.75% + €36,117 × 37.56% = €13,901 + €13,566 = €27,467, minus the general tax credit (about €219) and the labour tax credit (about €3,771), which gives about €23,477.

With the allowance, taxable €52,500: €38,883 × 35.75% + €13,617 × 37.56% = €13,901 + €5,114 = €19,015, minus the general tax credit (about €1,659) and the labour tax credit (about €5,235), which gives about €12,121.

Step 5: Compare Like with Like

The difference between the two tax amounts is the estimated benefit: €23,477 − €12,121 ≈ €11,360 per year (about €950 per month).

Worked Examples for 2026

We calculated these with the Belastingdienst’s 2026 Box 1 rates and the general and labour tax credit tables. Assumptions: employment income only, below AOW age, no pension contribution, no other income, and the labour income equal to the taxable salary.

It remains a planning estimate: payroll treatment, pension contributions, other income and personal circumstances change the result. Run the 30% ruling calculator and confirm eligibility or consequential decisions with the Belastingdienst or a qualified adviser.

To see where your salary sits in the labour market, check the average salary Netherlands guide.

The Percentage: 30% in 2026, 27% From 2027

30% in 2025 and 2026

According to Rijksoverheid, in 2025 and 2026 the tax-free allowance remains a maximum of 30%. Do not build a step-down into your 2026 calculation.

What Changes: 27% From 1 January 2027

From 2027 the maximum falls to 27% and a higher salary norm applies. A transitional arrangement depends on when the ruling was first applied to your salary (Rijksoverheid; see also our 2027 guide to the 30% ruling):

The amount of the higher 2027 salary norm is not given on the Rijksoverheid page. Check the Belastingdienst for the figure once it is published.

What the Drop to 27% Costs

With the €100,000 example and the 2026 tables, a 27% allowance gives a taxable income of €73,000 and tax of about €22,467, against €20,953 at 30%:

That is about €1,500 a year less at this salary level, using the 2026 tables (2027 rates and credits may differ).

The 30% ruling: is it still worth it in 2026? article goes deeper on whether the ruling still makes financial sense for applicants starting now.

Common Mistakes That Cost Expats the Ruling

Mistake 1: Not Applying Within 4 Months

Apply within 4 months after you start work if you want the ruling to apply from your first working day. If you apply later, only the actual extraterritorial costs can be paid tax-free until the date the decision starts (Belastingdienst).

Mistake 2: Not Meeting the 150 km Distance Rule

You must have lived more than 150 kilometres (as the crow flies) from the Dutch border for more than 16 of the 24 months before your first working day in the Netherlands. You may therefore not have lived in Belgium, Luxembourg or parts of Germany, France or the United Kingdom (Belastingdienst).

Mistake 3: Switching Jobs Without Checking

If you move to an employer within the same connected group of withholding agents and meet the conditions, your decision stays valid. For another employer, ask the Belastingdienst for permission together with the new employer, which is possible if you start within 3 months after your old job ends, and apply within 4 months after your start date (Belastingdienst).

Mistake 4: Letting the Salary Fall Below the Norm

Your salary excluding the allowance must be above the norm. If your salary falls below the indexed norm in a year, the ruling can lapse with retroactive effect to 1 January of that year, and employers have to correct earlier returns (Belastingdienst, decision page). Check with your employer before reducing your hours or salary.

Mistake 5: Forgetting the Ruling Affects Your Tax Return

Your employer applies the ruling through payroll, but verify the taxable salary on your annual statement (jaaropgave) and on your return. The Dutch tax return checklist for expats covers this.

The 30% Ruling and Box 3: The Advantage That Has Been Abolished

Holders of the ruling could elect partial foreign tax liability (partiële buitenlandse belastingplicht), which kept foreign savings and investments out of Box 3. From 1 January 2025 you cannot choose it in your return any more. If you already used the ruling before 2024, transitional law lets you use it up to and including 2026 (Belastingdienst).

For everyone else, your worldwide savings and investments fall in Box 3 above the exemption (€59,357 per person in 2026), at a tax rate of 36% on the deemed return. As an illustration, if €100,000 in foreign savings or investments were your only Box 3 assets, the 2026 deemed returns give about €190 of tax with all of it in bank savings (1.28%) and about €880 with all of it in other investments (6.00%).

See Box 3 tax and savings for expats for the full picture, and talk to a tax adviser about your own situation.

What Happens When the 30% Ruling Ends?

Your whole salary becomes taxable at the normal Box 1 rates. With the 2026 tables, on a €75,000 salary the income tax is about €11,400 per year higher than with the full 30% allowance (€23,477 against €12,121).

Box 3: for most people nothing changes when the ruling ends, because partial foreign tax liability has been abolished. For those who used the ruling before 2024, it is only available up to and including 2026.

Practical planning: review your pension contributions and your savings plans before the ruling ends. The Dutch pension system for expats guide covers how pension structures interact with taxable income, and cost of living in the Netherlands 2026 helps you calibrate how much income you need.

Sending Savings Abroad During the Ruling

See the Wise review for expats for a breakdown of what Wise costs versus bank transfers on common currency pairs.

How to Apply for the 30% Ruling

You complete the request form together with your employer, and you hear from the Belastingdienst within 8 weeks (Belastingdienst).

Step 1: Check the conditions. You work in paid employment, your annual salary excluding the allowance is above the norm (or you are a qualifying researcher), you were recruited from outside the Netherlands, and you meet the 150 km rule above.

Step 2: Agree the allowance with your employer. The allowance may be lower than 30%, so agree beforehand what you will receive.

Step 3: Complete the request form together with your employer. Apply within 4 months after you start work to use the ruling from your first working day.

Step 4: Receive the decision. The decision states the end date, with a term of at most 5 years, reduced by earlier periods of work or stay in the Netherlands.

For eligibility questions the 30% ruling eligibility guide covers the detail. Self-employed workers cannot use the ruling; see the ZZP freelancer guide.

Comparing the 30% Ruling Across Different Salary Levels

The table above shows the saving at four salary levels with the 2026 tables. If your salary is close to the norm, a pay cut or a reduction in hours can bring your salary below the norm, and then the ruling can lapse. At the standard-route norm, a salary of €69,000 leaves a margin of only about €410 above the gross €68,590 needed for the full 30%, although a lower allowance is still possible below that.

The average salary Netherlands guide helps with benchmarking what to expect in different industries.

Using the 30% Ruling Netherlands Calculator

The calculation above is a simplified model. Real-world Dutch taxes also include other elements, such as:

• General tax credit (algemene heffingskorting) and labour tax credit (arbeidskorting): both depend on income, as shown above
• Social insurance: the first Box 1 rate of 35.75% consists of 8.10% income tax and 27.65% national insurance contributions (Belastingdienst)
• Holiday allowance and pension contributions: these change your taxable salary

Our 30% ruling calculator produces a monthly and annual comparison for your own salary. You can also cross-check your salary against Dutch benchmarks using the salary comparison tool and browse all our tax and finance tools at /tools/.

For a longer-term financial picture, investing in the Netherlands as an expat covers savings and investment returns under the Dutch system.