ARTICLES
We not only love to talk about global mobility, we also love writing about it. Whether it’s a new tax treaty, a court decision or something we noticed in the field. We always try to come up with a fresh angle.
Below you will find some of our publications. Unfortunately most of the articles are in Dutch. However, if you want to know more about a topic after reading the summary, just give me call.
The Dutch government plans to reduce the maximum duration of the 30% ruling from 8 to 5 years as of January 1st, 2019. There will be no transitional period for current 30% holders. In other words, the reduction will already have an impact for both employers and employees as of the start of the new year. However, there are ways to limit the financial impact.
Within the EU social security is coordinated in EU Directive 883/2004. In principle, host country social security will be applicable. Home country rules will only apply if the employee is on an assignment or performs a substantial part of the activities in the home country. But what if the employee works in multiple countries during the assignment?
There are a lot of misconceptions about the 183-days rule. For instance that there will be no taxation abroad if an employee spends less than 183 days abroad. This usually results in long talks about the ‘economic employer’ and the recharge of salary costs. In this article the employee does spend more than 183 days in the Netherlands but with a surprising result.
Long-term incentive plans are used to improve employees’ long-term performance and to retain top talent in a highly competitive work environment. There are lots of different rewards, ranging from stock options or shares to RSU’s or phantom stock. Each plan has it’s own tax treatment. Especially in a cross-border setting things can get quite complex.
30% ruling for 'local' employees
In order to qualify for the 30% ruling an employee has to be hired from abroad. This means that the employee was living more than 150 kilometer outside of the Dutch border prior to the employment in the Netherlands. For this purpose, ‘living’ is linked to the tax residency status of the employee which can sometime have a surprising outcome.
If your employment contract is ended, you might be entitled to a substantial severance payment. However, if you worked in multiple countries, the taxation on this one-time payment can be quite complex. Especially if you are a Dutch employee of a German company, there are various attention points.
Under the Dutch WKR a maximum amount of 1.2% of the wage sum of a company can be paid out free of tax. For any excess the employer has to pay a final levy of 80%. The only additional criterion is that the payment is not ‘uncommon’. Up to an amount of € 2,400 a payment is deemed to be ‘common’.
The Dutch crisis tax was introduced in 2012 to generate extra income for the government. All employers with employees earning more than € 150,000, had to pay 16% tax over the excess amount. The crisis tax was announced as a one time affair, but the employer levy made a surprising return in 2014.
As of May 2016 the VAR has been replaced with model contracts as a result of the deregulation of the evaluation of employment relationships (DBA). Deregulation sounds like a good thing, but in this article we will explain why this legislation is causing a lot of commotion on the Dutch labor market.