What happens when your 30% ruling ends

What changes when your 30% ruling ends?

Your full salary becomes taxable, and any Box 3 exemption you still had ends. Box 3 covers your worldwide savings and investments. During the ruling, up to 30% of your salary was tax-free.¹ When it ends, that free part stops, so your taxable income rises.

Partial non-resident status ended on 1 January 2025. That status used to keep your worldwide assets out of Dutch Box 3. That choice survives through the 2026 return for a ruling that began in 2023 or earlier. A ruling that ends earlier loses the exemption at that point.

This page owns the expiry angle. Our page about the 30% ruling explains the ruling itself, who qualifies and how to apply. We cover the salary norms on our 30% ruling salary threshold page.

Take Marco. He has used the ruling for almost five years and it ends this year. He wants to know what his net pay does and what Box 3 will cost. We follow his figures through this page. He first used the ruling in 2022, so his exemption would have run through the 2026 return. His ruling ends this year, so it stops on that date and his worldwide assets count in Box 3 from then on.

How long does the ruling last, and what changes in 2027?

A 30% ruling lasts five years at most. The rate you keep depends on when you first applied it. The government reversed the 30-20-10 step cut, so the rate holds at 30% through 2026.³

From 2027 the rate drops to 27%.³ That lower rate applies to rulings first applied in 2024 or later.³ This is settled law, not a proposal. Parliament adopted the Belastingplan 2025 in December 2024, and it stands in the Staatsblad.⁴

Did you first apply the ruling in 2023 or earlier? Then you keep 30% and the old, indexed salary norms for the rest of your term.¹ The table below sets out each group.

For Marco, only the end of the term matters. His rate stays 30% until his final month, and then the allowance stops.

How much will your net pay drop?

Your net pay drops because the tax-free part of your salary stops. More of your salary then reaches Box 1.

The exact drop depends on your salary and your tax bracket, so we work it out with you rather than guess. For a higher salary the effect is larger, because more income moves into the top bracket.

The ruling base also has a ceiling. The 30% allowance applies only up to the WNT cap, which is €262,000 in 2026.¹ WNT is the Dutch public sector pay cap law. Salary above that was already taxed in full.

One planning step often helps. You can adjust your provisional assessment (voorlopige aanslag) so your monthly withholding matches the new position, instead of a bill later.

What does Box 3 cost after the ruling ends?

Box 3 taxes a deemed return on your worldwide assets, at 36% in 2026.² It applies above the tax-free allowance. That allowance is €59,357 per person, and €118,714 with a fiscal partner. A fiscal partner is your spouse or registered partner in most cases.

The Belastingdienst does not use your real return. It applies a set percentage per category. For 2026 that is 1.28% on savings (provisional), 6.00% on investments and other assets (fixed), and 2.70% on debts (provisional).²

Say Marco has €80,000 in savings and €40,000 in investments, and no fiscal partner. The table below follows each step to his Box 3 tax for the year.

If your real return is lower than the deemed return, you can report the lower figure instead. We review both routes side by side, so you pay the lower amount.

What else can you plan for?

You can split Box 3 assets between fiscal partners. That often lowers the total bill. Each partner has their own tax-free allowance, so the combined €118,714 is used in full.

Partner allocation is a choice in the return. You decide who reports which assets, and we work out the split that costs the least. More on that on our page about tax partner allocation.

This is also the moment to look at the wider picture. Your residency, a foreign home and a partner abroad all change what you owe. Our page on tax residency explains where you stand.

Marco files alone, so there is nothing to split. With a partner, the allocation would be his first lever.

What does this mean for you?

You now know when the rate changes and why Box 3 starts. You also know where the levers are. The next step is your own situation.

Review when your term ends and which rate group you are in. Add up your worldwide assets, since they now count in Box 3. If you have a partner, treat the allocation as your first move.

Marco keeps 30% until his final month, and his Box 3 position is already mapped. You can see how we handle a full return in our guide to the Dutch tax return.