The 30% ruling becomes 27% in 2027 — what it costs you
Two things change on 1 January 2027: the largest share of pay that may be reimbursed untaxed, and the salary a job has to pay for the scheme to apply at all. Which of them touches a ruling depends on the year it started — and for one of the three groups, neither does.
The percentage
From 2027 the maximum untaxed share falls to 27%, for incoming and outgoing employees alike, and it stays there for the rest of the 60-month term. For 2025 and 2026 it is 30%.
§19.4.1, Versobering … grotendeels teruggedraaid — read at its source on 2026-10-28
What the rule says
Het maximale percentage van de forfaitaire vergoeding wordt met ingang van 2027 verlaagd van 30% naar 27%. Dit geldt voor zowel ingekomen als uitgezonden werknemers. Dit percentage van 27% geldt vervolgens gedurende de hele (resterende) periode van 60 maanden.Who keeps 30%
A ruling the employer was already applying over the last pay period of 2023 keeps 30% for its whole term — unless the employee becomes an incoming employee again after an interruption that began after the end of 2023.
§19.4.1, Overgangsrecht (percentage) — read at its source on 2026-10-28
What the rule says
Sommige werknemers blijven gedurende de gehele looptijd van de beschikking recht houden op een vrijgestelde vergoeding van maximaal 30%. Dit overgangsrecht geldt als: u voor de werknemer de expatregeling (toen nog 30%-regeling) uiterlijk over het laatste loontijdvak van 2023 hebt toegepast[,] en de werknemer na een onderbreking na 31 december 2023 niet opnieuw een ingekomen werknemer is geworden.Changing job is not that kind of interruption when a new employer is found within 3 months and both sides ask for the scheme to continue.
§19.4.1, Overgangsrecht (percentage) — read at its source on 2026-10-28
What the rule says
Er is voor dit overgangsrecht geen sprake van een 'onderbreking' als de werknemer binnen 3 maanden een nieuwe werkgever vindt en op gezamenlijk verzoek de bewijsregel gedurende de resterende looptijd van toepassing is.The three groups
The percentage turns on 2023 and the salary norm turns on 2024, so the two transitional rules are not one rule: a ruling can lose the 30% and still be measured against the old norm.
| When the scheme was first applied | 2025 and 2026 | From 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Applied no later than the last pay period of 2023 | 30%, the old, indexed norm | 30%, the old, indexed norm |
| Applied no later than the last pay period of 2024 | 30%, the old, indexed norm | 27%, the old, indexed norm |
| Started in 2025 or later | 30%, the old, indexed norm | 27%, the new 2027 norm |
The table is the Handboek's own summary of the transitional rules, read back out of the prose of the same paragraph.
§19.4.1, Samengevat (overgangsrecht) — read at its source on 2026-10-28
What the rule says
Samengevat ziet het overgangsrecht voor de versobering van de expatregeling en de verhoging van de salarisnorm er als volgt uit:What it does to the allowance
The maximum is a share of pay including the allowance, which is why the change is not simply three per cent of a salary: at 30% the Handboek states the maximum as 30/70 of pay excluding the allowance, and the same identity at 27% is 27/73.
That second fraction is arithmetic on the quoted percentage, not a figure the Belastingdienst prints. The identity it comes from is quoted here in full.
§19.4.3, Inhoud van de regeling, Algemeen — read at its source on 2026-10-28
What the rule says
Het maximum van 30% van het loon inclusief de vergoeding is gelijk aan 30/70 van het loon exclusief de vergoeding.On €100,000 of pay excluding the allowance, a ruling that started in 2025 or later has a maximum untaxed allowance of €42,857 in 2026 and €36,986 in 2027 — €5,871 less of that salary reimbursed untaxed. Both figures come from the calculator on this site, which shows the rule behind each line it prints.
The salary norm rises as well
For a ruling that started in 2025 or later, the taxable annual pay the scheme requires goes to more than €51,899 in 2027 — and the Belastingdienst says in the same paragraph that the real figure will be higher, because these amounts are indexed once more before they are published.Provisional rule
A floor, not the answer: the Belastingdienst says the real figure will be higher. Formal publication follows in December 2026.
§19.4.1, Let op: Verhoging salarisnorm — read at its source on 2026-10-28
What the rule says
De salarisnorm voor het deskundigheidsvereiste wordt per 1 januari 2027 verhoogd naar € 51.899 … Deze bedragen worden nogmaals geïndexeerd. Dat betekent dat de normen per 2027 hoger zullen zijn dan de genoemde bedragen.For an employee under 30 with a master's degree from academic education, the same floor is more than €39,450.Provisional rule
A floor, not the answer, same as the standard norm. Formal publication follows in December 2026.
§19.4.1, Let op: Verhoging salarisnorm — read at its source on 2026-10-28
What the rule says
… en voor werknemers jonger dan 30 jaar met een masterdiploma gaat deze naar € 39.450. Deze bedragen worden nogmaals geïndexeerd. Dat betekent dat de normen per 2027 hoger zullen zijn dan de genoemde bedragen.A ruling that was being applied over the last pay period of 2024 stays on the old, indexed norm instead. That one has no published 2027 figure either: it is indexed every year, and the newest amount actually published is 2026's €48,013.Not published yet
The old norms keep being indexed every year, so the 2027 figure on this track is not published either. Last published value is the 2026 norm.
§19.4.1, Overgangsrecht (salarisnorm) — read at its source on 2026-10-28
What the rule says
Voor hen blijven de oude (geïndexeerde) salarisnormen van toepassing gedurende de gehele looptijd van de beschikking.The norm is tested per year, and a year under it withdraws the scheme back to 1 January of that year, barring the listed exceptions — among them a lower salary during parental or pregnancy leave.
§19.4.1, Toetsen inkomensnorm — read at its source on 2026-10-28
What the rule says
Deze inkomensnorm moet u op jaarbasis toetsen. Als het loon in een jaar lager is dan de norm (zie onder het kopje Deskundigheidsvereiste), vervalt de expatregeling met terugwerkende kracht tot 1 januari van dat jaar, tenzij 1 van de hierna genoemde uitzonderingen van toepassing is.It is not won back. Pay that meets the norm again in a later year does not restart the scheme.
§19.4.1, Toetsen inkomensnorm — read at its source on 2026-10-28
What the rule says
Voldoet de werknemer later wel weer aan de inkomensnorm, dan mag u de expatregeling niet meer toepassen.What cannot be worked out yet
The cap on the pay an allowance may be calculated over — the WNT norm, €262,000 in 2026 — is indexed annually and has no published 2027 amount. Figures circulate; none of them is official, so none of them is printed here or in the calculator.Not published yet
§19.4.3, Aftopping: hoofdregel — read at its source on 2026-10-28
What the rule says
Dit bedrag wordt jaarlijks geïndexeerd.Neither is the tax. The income tax brackets for 2027 sit in a bill until the Eerste Kamer votes in December 2026, so the calculator says what the allowance becomes and declines to turn it into a tax saving. A euro figure there would be a guess wearing a source.
What this is not
None of the above is a decision about one employee's situation, and none of it is tax advice. The employer applies for the ruling and the Belastingdienst decides; the transitional rules turn on facts a payroll record holds, such as the pay period the scheme was last applied over. Check any particular case against the Belastingdienst's own page on the expat scheme.
Every rule quoted on this page was read at its source on 2026-10-28.