Equivalent salary with the 30% ruling: how to compare an offer that has it with a salary that does not
By Skyler Bissell · September 26, 2026 · 9 min read
EUR 115,532 is the Amsterdam salary that matches a USD 150,000 life in New York for one person in our engine, and EUR 88,409 is the same bar with the 30% ruling switched on. Both are the answer to the same question, which gross salary in Amsterdam leaves the same cash after tax, rent, healthcare and the rest as USD 150,000 leaves in New York, and they differ by about a quarter because the second one taxes only 70% of the salary. A reader holding a Dutch offer that includes the ruling needs the second figure; a reader planning past year five needs the first; and a reader with an offer that says nothing about the ruling needs to find out which of the two they are looking at before they compare anything.
An equivalent salary with the 30% ruling is the Dutch gross salary that reproduces a household's current net cash when 30% of that salary is paid as a tax-free allowance and Box 1 tax is charged on the remaining 70%. It is solved the same way as any equivalent salary, by searching for the gross that matches the source city's net cash, with one switch flipped on the destination side. It is lower than the ordinary equivalent salary by the tax the allowance saves, for the term of the ruling, and it returns to the ordinary figure when the ruling ends.
Everything below runs on the published scenario every comparison page on this site uses: one person, USD 150,000, a 6% retirement contribution, renting a two-bedroom, one trip home a year, converted and solved at the exchange rate in our build. The figure with the ruling off is the one printed on the New York to Amsterdam comparison; the figure with it on is what that page shows when the regime toggle is switched, which the calculator exposes as ?i=1.
TL;DR
- Read the offer letter for the ruling before converting anything. An offer with it is measured against the lower bar; an offer without it against the higher one; the two bars are about a quarter apart for every US city we solved. The four steps.
- From Seattle the bar with the ruling is EUR 126,839, against EUR 165,972 without it; from Austin the two bars are the highest on the page because Texas takes no state income tax. Four US cities into Amsterdam.
- The same toggle lowers the bar in Madrid and Milan and does nothing in Copenhagen or Stockholm, because the salary that matches a New York life there sits under each scheme's door. Four other regimes.
Four steps to compare an offer that includes the ruling
- Convert, and then ignore the conversion. USD 150,000 is €129,450 at today's rate. That number answers no question about Amsterdam, because it keeps the New York tax rate, the New York rent and the New York health premium; it is the salary a currency converter would call equal, and every step after this one moves away from it.
- Price the ordinary bar. Solve for the Amsterdam gross that leaves the same net cash as USD 150,000 leaves in New York, with Dutch income tax on the full salary, an Amsterdam two-bedroom, Dutch health insurance and the rest. From New York that is EUR 115,532, above the converted figure, because Dutch tax on a full salary runs higher than New York's and Amsterdam rent does not fall far enough to pay for it.
- Switch the ruling on and solve again. With 30% of the salary paid tax-free and Box 1 charged on 70%, the same New York net is reached at EUR 88,409. The rent, the premium and the groceries did not move; only the tax line did, and it moved enough to pull the bar under the currency conversion.
- Read the gap, and read the calendar. The distance between the two bars is what the ruling is worth in the currency of a job offer, and it is worth that for the term of the ruling, five years at most, counted from the start date on the Belastingdienst's decision. An offer at the lower bar matches your life until the term ends and falls short of it after; an offer at the higher bar matches it throughout and is a raise for five years.
The two bars from four US cities
The same USD 150,000 leaves a different net in each US city, so the Amsterdam bar starts from a different place each time; the ruling then lowers each bar by about the same share. New York's stacked federal, state and city tax leaves the least net and sets the lowest bar; Austin's absence of state income tax leaves the most and sets the highest.
| USD 150,000 lived in | Converted at the build's rate | Amsterdam bar, ruling off | Amsterdam bar, ruling on |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York to Amsterdam | €129,450 | EUR 115,532 | EUR 88,409 |
| San Francisco to Amsterdam | €129,450 | EUR 122,017 | EUR 93,007 |
| Seattle to Amsterdam | €129,450 | EUR 165,972 | EUR 126,839 |
| Austin to Amsterdam | €129,450 | EUR 198,880 | EUR 154,206 |
Engine solves, 2026 rules, the published base scenario: one person, 6% retirement contribution, renting a two-bedroom, one trip home a year from the destination, no children. The source city is priced as home with no trips. "Ruling on" applies the 30% allowance to the whole solved salary; the salary norm of EUR 48,013 taxable after the allowance sits far below every figure here, and the EUR 262,000 cap on the allowance is not reached by any of them.
The Seattle and San Francisco rows show the two bars moving together. Seattle's net is high (Washington has payroll levies and no income tax), so both bars sit above New York's: EUR 165,972 without the ruling and EUR 126,839 with it, and the second is under the currency conversion while the first is well over it. San Francisco's California tax pulls its net down toward New York's, and its bars land just above New York's at EUR 122,017 and EUR 93,007. Austin is the row that surprises people who think of Amsterdam as cheaper: a Texan on USD 150,000 keeps so much net that matching it in Amsterdam takes EUR 198,880 on the ordinary rules and still EUR 154,206 with the ruling, both above the conversion. The ruling is worth the most in euros to the Austin mover and it is furthest from making the move free.
What the ruling does not change in the solve
The solve matches net cash, and the ruling touches one line of it. Rent for an Amsterdam two-bedroom is the same in both runs, and so are the Dutch health premium, the groceries, the transit and the rest of the basket. The employee contributions built into Dutch payroll run on the full salary in both runs. What moves is Box 1 income tax, charged on the whole salary in one run and on 70% of it in the other, and because that tax is charged at rates up to 49.5%, removing 30% of the base removes a good deal more than 30% of the tax. That is the entire mechanism, and it is why the bar drops by about a quarter rather than by 30%: the allowance is 30% of gross, the saving is the tax on it, and the bar is measured in gross.
Two things that people expect to matter do not, at these salaries. The ruling's own salary test, EUR 48,013 of taxable salary after the allowance in 2026, or about €68,590 of gross, is cleared by every bar on this page by a wide margin; the ruling is not at risk on the way down. And the ceiling, an allowance capped at 30% of EUR 262,000, is not reached by any of them; it is not at risk on the way up either. The one scheduled change is the share itself: for a ruling that starts in 2024 or later, Business.gov.nl's amendment page reads "From 1 January 2027 you may pay your employee a maximum of 27% of their wages tax-free," which lifts the with-ruling bar a little from that date and leaves the without-ruling bar where it is. The 2027 mechanics are on the 27% rate from 2027.
The same toggle on four other regimes
The regime switch in our calculator is the same switch for every city whose relief the engine computes, so the same New York life can be priced into the other regimes with it on and off. Two of the four behave like Amsterdam and two do nothing, which is the more useful lesson.
- New York to Madrid. The bar is EUR 89,464 on the ordinary rules and EUR 78,484 under the Beckham regime's flat 24%. The gap is the smallest of the four, because the flat rate replaces a Spanish ladder that runs lower than the Dutch one at this salary, so the ordinary bar is already low and there is less tax to remove.
- New York to Milan. The bar is EUR 106,496 on the ordinary rules and EUR 78,815 under the impatriati regime, which keeps half of the salary out of IRPEF. The gap is the largest, because the exclusion is the largest and the Italian ladder is steep.
- New York to Copenhagen. The bar is DKK 740,770 with the switch off and DKK 740,770 with it on: the same number. The researcher scheme opens at DKK 786,000 of annual salary, and the salary that matches a New York life in Copenhagen sits under that door, so the scheme is closed to it and the engine applies the ordinary ladder in both runs.
- New York to Stockholm. The bar is SEK 911,239 either way, for the same reason: Sweden's expert relief needs SEK 1,065,612 a year, tested monthly, and the matching Stockholm salary is under it.
The Copenhagen and Stockholm rows carry the point of the whole page. A regime lowers the bar only if the bar clears the regime's door, and for a mover whose life is priced from a city with lower rents and lower tax than New York, or on a higher salary, the door may open and the answer may change. The two Nordic doors, and the band of dollar salaries that clears one and not the other, are on the Nordic schemes compared. The bars here are for one person; how the engine treats a household with two salaries and children in a solve, and why the family bar is read from both sides rather than solved, is on the salary needed to move abroad with kids.
Which bar to negotiate on, and which to live on
The with-ruling bar is the fair comparison for the offer in your hand, because the ruling is real money and the employer granting it knows what it is worth. The without-ruling bar is the budget, because it is the salary the same life needs from the first payslip after the term ends, and the step between the two arrives in one month; where that step sits beside the Spanish, Italian, Belgian, Greek, Swedish and Danish ones on the same salary is on the take-home pay drop after the 30% ruling, ranked. The general method behind every bar on this page, and why an equivalent salary is a bar to clear rather than a salary to expect, is in the cluster's pillar, expat tax breaks decoded; the ordinary Dutch layer that the without-ruling bar is built on sits beside forty other countries in take-home pay by country.
FAQ
Should I negotiate on the with-ruling or the without-ruling figure?
Negotiate on the with-ruling figure and budget on the other. The ruling is real money for five years, and an employer that grants it knows what it is worth, so an offer above the with-ruling bar is a fair match for your current life. Rent, savings rate and any long commitment should be sized to the without-ruling bar, because that is the salary the same life needs from year six, and a raise that only closes the gap by then is not a raise.
Does the equivalent salary with the ruling change in 2027?
For rulings that started in 2024 or later, yes, a little. Business.gov.nl records that from 1 January 2027 the tax-free share becomes 27% and the salary norm rises to EUR 50,436, while rulings that started before 2024 keep 30% and the old norm for their whole term. A smaller exempt share means the ruling closes slightly less of the gap, so the with-ruling bar moves up toward the without-ruling one from 2027 for a post-2024 starter. Our engine applies the 30% share today.
Does the ruling lower the bar for a US citizen the same way?
On the Dutch payslip, yes: the equivalent salary is a Dutch net figure and the ruling lowers Dutch tax the same way for everyone who holds it. What changes for a US citizen is the US return filed on top, where a lower Dutch bill leaves a smaller foreign tax credit to set against the federal tax on the same income. The host-side arithmetic is on this page; the US side is on the 30% ruling and US citizen taxes.
Can I solve the equivalent salary with the ruling for a family?
In the calculator, yes: set the partner, the children and the ruling toggle and it solves the household. On this page, no: the published family scenario is a two-earner household, and a solver that returns one household gross cannot split it back into two salaries without inventing a ratio, so the figures here are one person. A partner's salary does not carry the ruling unless the partner holds a ruling of their own.
To run your own offer, put your salary and household into the calculator with the regime switched on, note the bar, switch it off and note it again. The first is the offer to compare against; the second is the one to sign a lease on.
Sources. The ruling's five-year maximum, the 2026 salary norm of EUR 48,013 and the EUR 262,000 cap on the allowance: Belastingdienst, the expat scheme (30% facility). The 27% share and the EUR 50,436 norm from 1 January 2027, with the transitional rule for pre-2024 rulings: Business.gov.nl, 30% ruling compensation down to 27%. The Danish floor and the Swedish monthly level are cited on the pages linked above from Skattestyrelsen and Forskarskattenämnden. All pages retrieved 26 September 2026. Every equivalent salary on this page is solved by cityparity's engine on the published base scenario, with US, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Danish and Swedish tax computed per city; per-field provenance is in data/_meta.json, and the solve is described in the methodology.
Figures here come from cityparity's per-city engine and were current at publication; tax rates, the ruling's share and norm, rents and exchange rates move, so treat any single number as a strong estimate and run your own inputs. An equivalent salary is the bar an offer has to clear in the destination city and it is not a job offer. See the methodology.