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Can I apply for the Expat Scheme (30% facility) if I come to work in the Netherlands?

You can apply for the Expat Scheme if you meet all the conditions.

These are the conditions:

  • You can only apply for the Expat Scheme if you are in paid employment by your employer.

  • Your specific expertise is hardly found on the labour market in the Netherlands. You have a specific expertise if your annual salary, not including the tax-free allowance in the Netherlands, is more than the annual salary in the table.

    Table: specific expertise
    Year Your annual salary is more than
    2025 €46,660
    2024 €46,107
    2023 €41,954

    You are younger than 30, and you have a Dutch academic master's degree

    Or you have obtained an equivalent title in another country. You have a specific expertise if your annual salary, not including the tax-free allowance in the Netherlands, is more than the annual salary in the table.
    Table: specific expertise for people younger than 30
    Year Your annual salary is more than
    2025 €35,468
    2024 €35,048
    2023 €31,891

    You are conducting scientific research

    And you conduct that research at a designated research facility. Or you are a doctor training to become a specialist. In that case, you can always make use of the Expat Scheme. The amount of your salary is not important.

  • You are also recruited outside the Netherlands if you live on Aruba, the BES islands, Curacao or Sint Maarten.

    No Expat Scheme (30% facility) if you live in the border region

    You must have lived at a distance of more than 150 kilometres as the crow flies from the Dutch border for more than 16 months in the 24 months prior to your first working day in the Netherlands. You are not allowed to have lived in Belgium, Luxembourg and parts of Germany, France or the United Kingdom.

    You have worked in the Netherlands before

    Did you previously qualify for the Expat Scheme and then moved outside the Netherlands again? If so, this does not have to be more than 150 kilometres from the Dutch border, if you meet all the following conditions:

    • Your previous work period started maximally 5 years ago. Before 1 January 2021, your previous work period had to have started at least 8 years ago.
    • When your previous work started, you lived more than 16 of the 24 previous months 150 kilometres (as the crow flies) from the Dutch border.
    • During your previous work period, you had a valid decision for the Expat Scheme. Or you can make it plausible that, during your previous work period, you met the then applicable conditions for the Expat Scheme.

    You have a PhD and you have a doctoral degree

    You can make use of the Expat Scheme if, in the 24 months prior to the start of your PhD research in the Netherlands, you lived more than 16 of the 24 previous months 150 kilometres (as the crow flies) from the Dutch border.

    During your PhD research and between getting your PhD and the start of your work in the Netherlands, you are allowed to have lived in the Netherlands, or within a radius of 150 kilometres from the Dutch border.

  • Your decision has a duration of up to 5 years. The end date is shown on your decision. We will reduce the duration of your decision by the period you previously worked or resided in the Netherlands.

    We will not reduce the duration in the following situations:

    • You previously worked or resided in the Netherlands, and that period ended more than 25 years before the start of your current work.
    • You worked occasionally in the Netherlands during the past 25 years, but less than 20 days a year in total. For example, during a business trip from abroad.
    • In the past 25 years, you stayed in the Netherlands occasionally, for example for holidays, family visits or other personal circumstances. And this did not exceed a total of 6 weeks per year, or a one-off period of 3 consecutive months.

Apply for the Expat Scheme (30% facility)

Do you meet all conditions, complete the application form together with your employer. We will inform you within 8 weeks.

Application for Expat Scheme

Frequently asked questions on the Expat Scheme (30% facility)

  • If you are coming to work in the Netherlands from another country you may experience higher cost of living than you are used to, for instance, because living expense here are higher than in your country. The Expat Scheme allows you to receive an untaxed allowance from your employer for these so-called 'extraterritorial costs'.

    Instead of an untaxed allowance, your employer may also pay up to 30% of your salary, including compensation, to you untaxed. Your employer is not obliged to pay 30% of your salary to you untaxed. The allowance may be lower. Therefore, agree with your employer in advance on the allowance you will receive when you apply for the Expat Scheme.

  • As of 2025, your maximum untaxed allowance is €73,800. You can get the maximum untaxed allowance of €73,800 if you have a salary of €246,000 or more, and you make use of the Expat Scheme for the whole year.

    If you make use of the Expat Scheme for part of the year, your maximum allowance will be lower. You then calculate your maximum allowance time-proportionally, over the part of the year you make use of the Expat Scheme.

    If you were already making use of the Expat Scheme in 2022, the maximum allowance will only come into effect for you on 1 January 2026.

  • Are you changing employers within a connected group of withholding agents and do you also meet the conditions of the Expat Scheme with your new employer? Then your Expat Scheme decision will remain valid. You do not have to submit a new application. Please ask your employer if your new and your previous employer belong to the same connected group of withholding agents.

    New employer outside the connected group of withholding agents

    Check together with your new employer whether your Expat Scheme decision can remain valid. This is possible if you start working for your new employer within 3 months after leaving your old job.

    Submit your application within 4 months after you started working for your new employer. Then you can use the Expat Scheme from the first working day at your new employer.

    Application for Expat Scheme

  • Extraterritorial costs include:

    • extra costs of living, because the price in the Netherlands is higher than in the country you come from, for example extra expenses for meals, gas, water and electricity
    • costs for a familiarisation trip to the Netherlands, possibly with your family, for instance to look for a house or a school
    • fees for applying for or converting official personal papers, such as residence permits, visas and driving licences
    • costs for medical examinations and vaccinations for the stay in the Netherlands
    • double housing costs if you continue to live in your home country, e.g. hotel costs
    • the (initial) housing costs
      If you receive housing, only the (first) housing costs exceeding 18% of the wages from current employment are extraterritorial costs. The rest of the costs are wages. If you hire yourself, your employer may also apply the 18% calculation method to provide the excess tax-free. In general, you cannot get an untaxed reimbursement or allowance from your employer for furniture.
    • storage costs for the part of the estate that you are not moving to the Netherlands
    • travel costs to your home country, e.g. for family visits or family reunions
    • additional costs for having the income tax return filled in, if this is more expensive than having the return filled in by a comparable tax consultant in your country of origin.
    • language training costs for you and for family members staying with you
    • additional (non-business) call charges for calling your home country
    • the costs of an application for social security exemption, such as an A1 or E101 certificate of coverage

    No extraterritorial costs

    For costs that are not extraterritorial costs, your employer cannot give a tax-free reimbursement.

    No extraterritorial costs include:

    • expatriate allowances, bonuses and similar allowances
    • capital losses
    • costs of buying and selling a house
    • compensation for higher tax rates in the country of employment

  • In addition to the Expat Scheme, you can get a tax-free reimbursement from your employer for extraterritorial costs for school fees. It must concern an international school or an international department of a regular school. This is the case if:

    • the education at the (section of the) school concerned is based on a foreign system
    • the school or department is mainly intended for children of expatriate workers

  • In your income tax return, you should state the annual salary on your annual statement. When calculating your annual salary, the Expat Scheme has already been taken into account. Therefore, you do not have to calculate your annual salary yourself.

    Does the Expat Scheme end during the year? In that case, too, fill in the annual salary that is stated on your annual statement. You receive the annual statement from your employer.

  • As of 1 January 2025, you can no longer opt for partial foreign tax liability in your tax return. If you used the Expat Scheme before 2024, you can still use the partial foreign tax liability until 2026 due to transitional law.

    You can opt for partial foreign tax liability in your income tax return, if you live in the Netherlands and make use of the Expat Scheme. You are then a non-resident taxpayer for your taxable income from substantial interests (Box 2) and your taxable income from savings and investments (Box 3). This can be advantageous for you as you will pay tax on a lower taxable income in Box 2 and Box 3.

    You can be a partial non-resident taxpayer from the 1st day of the calendar year in which you choose to do so, but not before the 1st day you use the Expat Scheme.

    If you have a partner, you can file a tax return together as tax partners. You can do so even if you only use the expat scheme and your partner does not. But your tax partner cannot then opt for partial foreign tax liability in the tax return. This is only possible if your partner also uses the expat scheme.

    Read more about partial foreign tax liability (only available in Dutch).


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