The 30% ruling has one moment of arrival, even though some think you can be flexible with this moment. What is that about?
The 30% ruling and moment of arrival
We have addressed the 30% ruling in earlier messages. If you like to learn more about what this ruling implies, click on the link to the articles. This article is about the moment of arrival.
The 30% ruling has one reference moment and that is the moment of first arrival in the Netherlands. At that moment you need to have met the conditions of:
– being attracted from abroad by a Dutch employer;
– You cannot have lived closer to the Dutch border than 150km in the two years before arrival
– you were not a resident in the Netherlands in the past 25 years.
The moment of arrival
Often we are asked by students if they can have the 30% ruling. Obviously we reply that this is not possible, as they arrived in the Netherlands for a study. They were not attracted by a Dutch employer. For such a situation is one exception. If you receive the Doctor title after your study, you can study the last year in the Netherlands and still be awarded the 30% ruling. Anything else does not apply.
These students then claim that they have always remained a tax resident in their home country, hence never arrived in the Netherlands before. That is how they think they can apply. And then quickly it is added that all other students makes their application like this and is always granted.
We disagree with this approach as it is incorrect. It jeopardizes all the ruling stands for. We need knowledge from abroad hence this ruling. The 30% ruling is not meant for people that took a Dutch education, that knowledge we apparently already have.
Court case
Recently a similar situation was in court. A daughter who remained in the family home while the parents were send abroad to serve our country moved out. She moved out because she went to study in a big Dutch city. From that moment the house was no longer the main residence of any of the family members. Hence no more mortgage deduction.
The relevance for us is not the mortgage deduction, but the daughter moving out. The Dutch tax office and the court had the opinion that if the daughter moves away, she is no longer part of the house hold. Even if she comes back for the weekends.
This is exactly the case with the foreign students arriving in the Netherlands. They are no longer part of the family house hold. They have become Dutch residents. Hence their first arrival in the Netherlands is because of a study. This is a denial for the 30% ruling.
Tax-is-exciting
We think tax-is-exciting. Part of that are the rules and regulations based on which taxation is executed. If then a rule is misused based on “everybody is doing this” we feel not excited at all. For us that is not a base to play the game.
Sorry for the dashes in the middle of the word tax-is-exciting. Apparently Google has a dirty mind and sees only a three letter word that we refer to when we practice to reproduce ourselves. Anything related to that word is spam, hence this devout solution
