Dutch Universities Ask State Secretary & Ministry to Maintain 30% Tax Ruling for Expats

14 Dutch universities within Universities of the Netherlands (UNL), the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences (VH), the Netherlands Federation of University Medical Centers (NFU), and the Employers’ Association for Research Institutions (WVOI) have called on the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Education to maintain the 30 percent facility for expats.

They have sent a letter to the State Secretary Van Rij (Ministry of Finance) and Minister Dijkgraaf (Ministry of Education, Culture and Science), asking the latter not to cut back the 30 percent facility as it would seriously affect youngsters and researchers in particular.

The letter says that the 30 percent facility is of great importance for Dutch universities, adding that these institutions employ almost ten thousand scientists who use the reimbursement.

“It largely concerns young international (medical) researchers who, thanks to this scheme, can work and live in the Netherlands. For them, especially for Ph.D. students, cutting back or abolishing the 30% immediately causes major problems,” the letter reads.

According to the letter, the 30 percent facility encourages international scientists and researchers to pursue a career at a higher education institution in the Netherlands; therefore, the scheme is also important for the country’s business climate.

Groups have highlighted that the Netherlands faces major social challenges, and academic and practice-oriented research is crucial to solving societal problems related to climate, energy transition, health, and technology.

“For this, we need the unique talents from the Netherlands and abroad. The labor market for scientific talent knows few limits and is getting tighter. We cannot fill this shortage with Dutch employees alone,” the letter adds.

Concluding the letter, groups required improvement of academic education and research as well as the creation of a good business climate. To achieve this, they said that the 30 percent facility is an essential condition, and it must remain unchanged.  

The 30 percent facility is a tax exemption, available to employees coming from other countries to work temporarily in the Netherlands. If employees fulfill a number of conditions for the 30 percent facility, the taxable amount of their gross salary in the Netherlands is reduced to 70 percent.

Recently, the Universities of the Netherlands reached a negotiation deal on the Collective Labor Agreement for universities in the country for the 2022/23 academic year. UNL announced that parties have agreed to increase the salaries of university employees by 4 percent on July 1, 2022.