The 30% ruling salary threshold

What is the 30% ruling salary threshold?

The salary threshold is the minimum salary you must earn for the 30% ruling.¹ It is tested on the salary that stays taxable after the tax-free allowance. In a first or last part year, the salary is first converted to a full-year amount.⁴ Missing it in any year stops the ruling for that year.

There are two norms. The general norm applies to most employees. A lower norm applies if you are under 30 and hold a Dutch master's degree or an equivalent.

This is the fiscal salary norm, set for the tax benefit itself. It is not the same as the IND salary criterion for the highly skilled migrant (kennismigrant) residence permit. You can meet one norm and not the other. The ruling itself, who qualifies and how to apply live on our page about the 30% ruling. You can place it in the wider picture on our Dutch tax system hub.

Take Diego. He is 26 and holds a foreign master's degree equivalent to a Dutch one. He starts a job on 1 January 2026 at €39,000. He wants to know whether that salary clears the norm and what the 2027 change does to it. We follow his figures through this page.

His employer recruited him from abroad for this role. In the two years before he started, he lived over 150 km from the Dutch border.⁵ The ruling requires more than 16 of those 24 months beyond that distance.

How much is the salary threshold in 2026?

In 2026 the general norm is €48,013 and the reduced norm is €36,497.¹ The reduced norm applies to employees under 30 with a Dutch master's degree or an equivalent foreign one. It applies up to and including the month the employee turns 30. From the month after, the general norm applies.⁴

Both norms move a little each year. The Belastingdienst indexes them annually, so they rise with the standard adjustment. The table below sets out the last three years for each norm.

The salary on the contract must clear whichever norm fits the situation. The Belastingdienst tests the salary that stays taxable after the tax-free allowance. So only the part above the norm can be paid tax-free, up to 30% of the total.

Does Diego's salary clear the norm?

Yes, his €39,000 clears the 2026 reduced norm of €36,497. Diego is under 30 and holds an equivalent foreign master's degree, so the reduced norm applies to him.

His margin is small, though. In 2026 he sits €2,503 above the norm. That €2,503 is also the most he can receive tax-free that year. This is because the salary that stays taxable may not drop below the norm. The full 30% would need a salary of about €52,139. That €52,139 is the reduced norm of €36,497 divided by 0.7. His ruling started in 2026, so he is on the 2024-onward track. The 2027 change reaches him. The 2027 reduced norm starts from €38,388 before indexation. His €39,000 still clears that base amount, but only by €612.

Had his offer been €38,000, he would clear the norm in 2026 and fall just under it in 2027. That is why a salary near the norm is worth a second look before the year turns. The table follows his figures through both years. Indexation raises that 2027 norm, so his margin can disappear before the year starts.

What changes in 2027?

For rulings from 2024 onward, the norm rises and the rate drops to 27%.² The change takes effect on 1 January 2027 and is law, not a proposal. Parliament adopted it in the Belastingplan 2025 (the 2025 Tax Plan). It stands in the Staatsblad, the official Dutch law gazette. The Tweede Kamer (lower house) voted on 14 November 2024. The Eerste Kamer (upper house) voted on 17 December 2024.³ The enacted norms are €50,436 general and €38,388 reduced, at their 2024 base. That base is a legal reference year, not the 2024 norm in the table. The Belastingdienst still indexes them for 2027.

You will see indexed estimates for 2027 circulating online. We do not use those. We keep to the official €50,436 until the Belastingdienst publishes the final 2027 amounts.

So the 2027 change applies to newer rulings only, which is worth knowing if you are weighing an offer now.

Why do two colleagues face different norms?

The date the ruling started decides which track you are on.² ³ One rule covers rulings that began before 2024, another covers rulings from 2024 onward.

Through 2026 both tracks use the same norms, the ones in the norms table above. The split arrives in 2027. A ruling that started before 1 January 2024 keeps its own indexed norm and the full 30%. The 2027 increase and the lower rate pass it by.

A ruling that started on or after 1 January 2024 works differently. It follows the norm above through 2026, then moves to the higher 2027 norm and a 27% rate from 1 January 2027. So two people doing the same job can face different figures purely because of when their ruling began.

What does this mean for you?

Read your salary against the norm for this year and next. The norm you must clear depends on your age, your degree and the year your ruling started.

Check that your salary after the tax-free part still clears the right norm. If you are under 30 with a master's, use the reduced norm and remember it rises in 2027. If your salary sits close to a norm, treat next year as an open question worth confirming before it turns.

We work out which norm applies, review your salary against it and file your return around the ruling. You can see how we handle a full return on our page about the Dutch tax return. You can read what happens when the ruling ends on our page about the 30% ruling ending. Diego clears both years for now, but indexation can erase his 2027 margin.