Your 30%-Ruling in 2027: A Foreign-Assets and Payslip Timeline

A lot of what's written about the 30%-ruling right now conflates two different things: the percentage on your payslip, and whether your foreign savings, investments, or property sit inside or outside Dutch Box 3. Those used to move together for some people. They don't anymore, and the two changes land on different timelines. This guide separates them and gives you a checklist based on when your own ruling started.

This is general information, not personal tax advice. Your exact percentage, salary cap, and foreign-asset treatment depend on your Belastingdienst approval letter (beschikking), and a tax treaty with your home country can change how a foreign asset is actually taxed regardless of your ruling status. Confirm your specifics with a Dutch tax advisor.

Step one: find your cohort

Everything below depends on when you started using the ruling — not when you moved or were hired, but your approval date.

• Started before 1 January 2024: full 30% for your entire five-year term. The 2027 reduction doesn't apply to you.
• Started during 2024: 30% through end of 2026, then 27% from 1 January 2027 for the rest of your term. An earlier, more complicated 30%→20%→10% step-down was legislated for a period but has since been dropped in favor of this simpler flat-then-27% structure — discard any older article describing the tiered version.
• Started 2025 or later: same timeline as the 2024 cohort. A ruling starting in 2027 or later gets 27% from the outset.

The maximum duration is five years across all cohorts, and a salary threshold applies throughout, with a separate maximum ("Balkenende norm") that a transitional exception delayed for some early starters but which applies broadly from 2026. If your numbers don't match one of these three descriptions, check your beschikking rather than assume.

Step two: separate the three things this changes

(a) The payroll percentage — above. A straightforward Box 1 mechanic: if you're stepping down to 27% in 2027, model your post-change net pay against your actual salary and current brackets before it lands in a payslip, not after.

(b) The salary threshold and cap — a minimum salary to qualify, and a maximum the percentage can apply to, both indexed periodically. Separate from (a): you can be grandfathered at 30% and still need to check whether the cap now applies where a transitional exception previously excused you.

(c) Partial foreign tax liability — your foreign-asset position. Most easily confused with (a), and what actually decides whether foreign savings or brokerage wealth sit inside or outside Dutch Box 3. Ruling holders could historically elect this status, treating them as non-resident for Box 2/3 purposes — foreign wealth stayed outside Box 3 entirely, independent of the payroll percentage. Largely abolished for new applicants from 1 January 2025. The remaining transitional protection is narrow: only those already holding both the ruling and the election before the change — reported as those awarded the scheme in the last 2023 payroll period — keep it, and only through end of 2026.

Being grandfathered at 30% says nothing about whether your foreign assets are still outside Box 3. They're separate questions, and only a narrow group of long-tenured holders gets a "yes" on the second, only until end of 2026. See our 30%-ruling and savings guide for how this election worked, and our Box 3 wealth tax guide for what applies once foreign assets are inside it.

The 2026 → 2027 checklist

1. Confirm your cohort against your beschikking, not your hire or arrival date.
2. If 2024-or-later cohort, model 2027 net pay at 27% using your real salary and brackets now.
3. If you elected partial foreign tax liability before 2024, treat 31 December 2026 (or your own ruling's end date if it comes sooner) as a hard date — get documented valuations of every foreign account and property now for a clean starting position. Our Box 3 handover checklist walks through the records to gather and how the no-separate-form election actually works on your return, including a mid-year example. Our filing walkthrough covers the general portal mechanics.
4. Discard any 20%/10% step-down figure you've seen elsewhere — current guidance is flat through 2026, then 27%.
5. If you hold foreign property, complex equity, or shares in a foreign company, don't assume the general rules apply cleanly — these interact with treaties and valuation rules that need individual advice. See our questions to ask an advisor, including whether they've handled the 2025 change for someone like you.

What's confirmed vs. still being reported

The 27% payroll change and the 2025 narrowing of partial foreign tax liability both reflect current official guidance. Separately, you may see reporting that the broader Box 3 reform — the shift from deemed to actual return as the default system — is being delayed past its originally targeted 2028 start. Treat that as proposed and reported, not enacted; it's a different reform, covered with its own hedging in our 2028 Box 3 reform guide. Don't let uncertainty there bleed into the 2027 changes above, which rest on firmer ground.

FAQ

I started in late 2023 — which cohort am I in?

Before-2024 for the payroll percentage — 30% for your full term. Your partial-foreign-tax-liability position depends on whether you were awarded the scheme in the last 2023 payroll period specifically; confirm the exact date with an advisor rather than assuming.

Does the 2027 change affect people who already lost partial foreign tax liability in 2025?

No — unrelated. 27% is a payroll percentage affecting Box 1. Partial foreign tax liability affects Box 2/3 foreign-asset treatment. Someone hit by both is experiencing two separate changes that happen to land near each other.

Once my foreign assets enter Box 3, are they taxed like domestic assets?

Broadly yes — the same deemed-return mechanics (or the actual-return comparison, see our actual-return guide) apply regardless of origin. Valuation and treaty effects for foreign property or foreign company shares aren't generic, though — get individual advice.

Can I reapply for the ruling to reset my cohort?

No. Your cohort is fixed by your original approval date. If your employment situation changes substantially, ask an advisor whether it affects your existing beschikking.

Where can I model my own numbers?

Use the 30%-ruling calculator for the payroll impact and the Box 3 calculator for the foreign-asset question once you know your status.

Does this change if I leave the Netherlands before 2027?

No — leaving ends your ruling and any remaining election on your departure date; you won't see the 2027 step-down if you've already left. See our financial exit checklist for what else changes on departure.