What is regarded a salary under the Dutch wage tax Act? A taxable salary is anything the employee receives from his employer. That implies any kind of remuneration, regardless of the title given to this remuneration. There are a limited number of exceptions.
One of the well known exception is the 30% ruling. The official name is the 30% reimbursement of costs ruling. Costs that are being reimbursed cannot qualify for wage subject to wage tax. The 30% is a result of experience. The experience learned that over time the average amount of costs deductible for wage tax purposes for an expat resulted in more or less 30%, hence the 30% ruling.
Providing an employee with a car allowance for the fact that he uses his private car for company use is subject to tax. The amount subject to tax can be reduced by the employee providing the employer with an overview of the actual KM driven for the company. The taxable amount can be reduced by 0,19c per business KM. The home to office distance cannot be taken into account. This overview is very likely to be challenged by the tax office, hence please provide one that meet the set requirements.
When employees stay abroad and receives a reimbursement for these days, so called per diems, then these per diems are subject to Dutch wage tax. This is only different if these per diems are already being taxed in the country where the work has been done.
Share options are also taxed in the payroll. The difference between the value paid for the option and the value at the moment of exercise is subject to wage tax.
