On April 20, State Secretary for Finance Menno Snel announced the Dutch Government’s plans to adjust the 30% ruling in a Letter to Parliament. The State Secretary announced the reduction of the maximum duration of the 30% ruling from eight to five years. The reduced duration will apply as of 2019 for both new and existing cases (without transitional law). The maximum period of five years will also apply to the partial non-resident taxpayer status and to the possibility of reimbursing actual extraterritorial expenses tax-free. The other conditions of the 30% ruling do not change.
The proposed changes and the retroactive application have caused lots of unrest among AmCham’s Members and international companies and organizations across the country. AmCham is convinced that the 30% ruling is an important instrument to keep the Netherlands an attractive country for companies to invest in. Over the past years, AmCham has therefore both formally and informally been advocating for the ruling.
In September 2017, AmCham has responded to an official request for feedback by the Dutch Parliament’s Standing Committee on Finance - the letter is available here.
Following the State Secretary's announcement on April 20, 2018 AmCham has immediately conveyed the concerns of its Members to the Ministry of Finance. AmCham will meet with the Ministry in the next couple of weeks to discuss the concerns.
On May 14, AmCham also addressed the issue during its Annual Chamber Luncheon with Minister of Finance Wopke Hoekstra. The Minister indicated that it is the Government’s intention to adapt the 30% ruling as was agreed in the Coalition Agreement.
In an article in AD (one of the Netherlands’ leading newspapers) published on May 20, AmCham’s Executive Director Patrick Mikkelsen strongly advises the Dutch Government to maintain the current fiscal facility for expats and to further improve the tax climate so that the Netherlands stays competitive and again becomes the preferred destination for US (and other) foreign investment - a position the Netherlands is rapidly losing. Other employer associations are speaking up as well: see an article in English on DutchNews.nl.
AmCham is also collaborating with the German and Japanese Chambers of Commerce to jointly advocate the importance of the 30% ruling for the Dutch investment climate.
AmCham supports and shared with its Members the link to a petition started by United Expats of the Netherlands, to urge Dutch lawmakers to honor the deal they made with skilled expats currently benefiting from the 30% ruling. In support of this mission, over 26,000 expats have already signed. United Expats has received national media attention for its efforts and continues to garner support from members of the community. The petition is available here until May 25, 2018. The petition will be handed over to the Standing Committee on Finance on May 31, 2018.
In addition, ICAP, the International Community Advisory Panel, is carrying out a survey to try to assess what the change will mean for people currently benefiting from the ruling. If you want to participate, the survey can be accessed here until May 25.
AmCham is committed to bring across its Members' concerns and will be relentless in its efforts to halt the current proposal the coming months. AmCham will strongly recommend to leave the ruling intact. If changes to the ruling are unavoidable, AmCham will make a plea to stick to existing commitments and to not apply the changes retroactively.
