Limitation of 30 per cent facility

When certain employees temporarily come to the Netherlands from abroad to work here (incoming employees), their employer may reimburse certain additional costs free of tax. Travel and accommodation costs, for example (so-called extraterritorial costs). This must be on the basis of expense claims, but application of the 30% facility may also be requested, subject to conditions. The employer can then reimburse 30 per cent of the salary (including reimbursement) to the employee tax free without further substantiation of the costs.

The government now proposes to limit the tax-free reimbursement in the 30% facility to 30 per cent of the amount of the remuneration standard for senior executives in the Senior Executives in the Public and Semi-Public Sector (Standards for Remuneration) Act (Wet normering topinkomens, ‘WNT standard’) from 2024. This WNT standard DE is €216,000 in 2022. The standard will also apply if the incoming employee works for several, mutually related withholding agents.

This proposed limitation will not immediately apply to everyone. There will be a transitional scheme for incoming employees for whom the 30% facility was applied over the last pay period of 2022. For them, the limitation will not apply until 1 January 2026.

Another proposal is to disallow switching between application of the 30% facility and reimbursement of actual extraterritorial costs within a calendar year. This measure will probably start to apply to both incoming and assigned workers as early as 1 January 2023.

Additional benefits of the 30% facility:

• Tax-free reimbursement of children’s school fees (international schools)
• Exemption from tax of box 3 assets under certain conditions (during the term)

If you work with employees from abroad, please discuss with your adviser whether you can avail yourself of the 30% facility and how the proposal may affect employees currently working under this scheme.

We are also happy to advise you on the 30% facility. Please send an email to international@acconavm.nl to get in touch with one of our international experts.