Somewhere in the last few weeks, a headline landed in your group chat: "30% ruling cut to 27%." No context, no dates, just enough to ruin a Tuesday. If you're currently on the ruling, or about to sign an offer that includes it, here's the actual policy, not the group-chat version: what's changing, when, who it hits, and, because a percentage on its own means nothing, what it costs in real euros.
The short version
2026 changes nothing, the cap stays at 30%. From 1 January 2027 it drops to 27%, but only for people whose ruling started in 2024 or later. If you already had it running in December 2023, you keep 30% for your entire remaining term. No cutoff, no expiry on that.
Everyone's fixated on 1 January 2027 because that's when the new rate switches on. But the date that decides whether it applies to you is December 2023. That's the line the Belastingdienst drew:
So two colleagues who both started their ruling in, say, March 2024, are in the exact same boat as someone starting next month: all of them see 27% from 2027 onward. It's not "old rulings vs new rulings," it's a single hard cutoff at December 2023.
This isn't finalised law yet
The measure still has to pass through the Tweede Kamer and Eerste Kamer before it's official. The percentages and the December 2023 cutoff are what's currently on the table and what every professional tax source is working from, but the exact effective date and details could still shift before it's actually enacted. We'll update this page if that happens.
Here's the part the headlines skip: 30% vs 27% doesn't mean your salary drops by 3%. It means 3% of your gross salary moves from tax-free into the normal taxed bucket. What that costs depends entirely on your tax bracket, so we ran it through our own calculator rather than guess. Same salary, same 2026 rules, only the ruling percentage changed:
Worked example · €70,000 gross · 2026 tax rules
What you get today, and for good if your ruling started in December 2023 or earlier.
What the same salary nets from 1 January 2027, if your ruling started in 2024 or later.
Difference: €1.062 less per year (about €89/month)
On a €70,000 gross salary, dropping from 30% to 27% costs about €1,062 a year, roughly €88 a month. Not nothing, but not the disaster the headline made it sound like either.
The closer you are to the salary floor, the less this matters
The ruling already has a built-in floor: your taxable salary can never drop below the legal minimum (€48,013 for 2026), so the calculator automatically shrinks the effective percentage for anyone close to that line. Run a €55,000 gross salary through both 30% and 27% and you get the exact same net income either way, because the floor was already doing the capping before the nominal rate even entered the picture. If your salary sits near the threshold, this whole change might cost you nothing at all.
Separately from the percentage cut, the minimum salary you need to qualify is going up for 2027, expected to land somewhere in the low-to-mid €50,000s (the exact indexed figure isn't published yet, so we're not going to print a fake-precise number here). The reduced threshold for under-30 employees with a qualifying Master's degree rises too, by roughly the same proportion. If you're currently qualifying close to the 2026 line, it's worth checking the final 2027 numbers once they're confirmed, not just the percentage change.
If you started before 2024, you can stop reading here
None of the euro figures above apply to you. Your ruling stays at 30% for its full remaining term, exactly as it was when you signed up. This entire change is aimed at rulings that started in 2024 or later.
This article reflects Dutch tax rules as of 2026. It is not tax advice, consult a qualified belastingadviseur for your specific situation.