Take-home pay drop after the 30% ruling, ranked: where the expiry step falls hardest in seven cities
By Skyler Bissell · September 26, 2026 · 9 min read
20.8% of gross salary goes back to the tax office the year Milan's impatriati regime ends, for one person on USD 150,000, which is €26,966 a year or €2,247 a month in the same job. Copenhagen's step on the same salary is 6.9% of gross. Amsterdam's 30% ruling sits fourth of seven, with a step of 16.8%. Every inbound tax regime in Europe ends the same way, in one payslip, and this page ranks the size of that payslip across the seven regimes our engine can price on one salary.
The take-home pay drop after the 30% ruling, or after any inbound tax regime, is the difference between the same gross salary taxed with the relief applied and taxed under the country's ordinary rules, landing in the first pay period after the term ends. It equals one year of the regime's value, reversed. Nothing on the contract changes; the salary is unchanged; only the tax base moves, all at once.
The single-country versions of this step already exist: the Amsterdam cliff at EUR 100,000 and EUR 150,000, in euros a month, is on when the 30% ruling ends, and the Madrid step with the worldwide-income shock that follows it is on after Beckham's six years. What neither page can say is where each country's step sits against the others, because a step in kroner and a step in euros need the same salary in both. So every figure below is the same USD 150,000, converted once at the exchange rate in our build, taxed twice in each city.
TL;DR
- Ranked by the share of gross that returns to tax, Milan, Athens and Brussels lead at 21% to 19% points, Amsterdam is fourth, and Copenhagen closes the list at 7% points. The ranking.
- The dollar order is the same order, and Madrid and Stockholm are within a few hundred dollars of each other on the same salary. Why the order comes out this way.
- Steep steps come from a large exclusion on a steep ladder; small ones from a flat rate that was not far under the ladder to begin with. The year the step lands differs by regime. When it lands.
The expiry step in seven cities, ranked by the share of gross it takes
One single filer, no children, no voluntary pension contribution, USD 150,000 converted to each city's currency at the site's build rate. "Under the regime" is take-home with the relief applied; "after" is the same salary on the ordinary rules; the step is the difference. The ranking key is the step as a share of gross, which is the number that survives a change of salary or exchange rate best, and it is the same figure as the rise in the effective rate.
| # | City, regime | Keeps under the regime | Keeps after it ends | Step per year (per month) | Share of gross | Rate, before to after | In dollars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Milan, impatriati | €98,848 | €71,882 | €26,966 (€2,247) | 20.8% | 23.6% to 44.5% | $31,247 |
| 2 | Athens, article 5C | €100,761 | €75,134 | €25,627 (€2,136) | 19.8% | 22.2% to 42.0% | $29,696 |
| 3 | Brussels, inbound regime | €89,239 | €64,886 | €24,353 (€2,029) | 18.8% | 31.1% to 49.9% | $28,219 |
| 4 | Amsterdam, 30% ruling | €97,417 | €75,666 | €21,751 (€1,813) | 16.8% | 24.7% to 41.5% | $25,204 |
| 5 | Madrid, Beckham regime | €94,495 | €78,268 | €16,227 (€1,352) | 12.5% | 27.0% to 39.5% | $18,803 |
| 6 | Stockholm, expert tax relief | SEK 1,072,344 | SEK 894,458 | SEK 177,885 (SEK 14,824) | 12.5% | 24.7% to 37.2% | $18,725 |
| 7 | Copenhagen, researcher scheme | DKK 649,773 | DKK 582,604 | DKK 67,169 (DKK 5,597) | 6.9% | 32.8% to 39.8% | $10,414 |
Engine figures, 2026 rules, single filer, renting, no church tax, no voluntary pension contribution. USD 150,000 is €129,450 in the four euro cities, SEK 1,425,000 in Stockholm and DKK 967,500 in Copenhagen at the build's exchange rate; the dollar column converts the local step back at the same rate. Rates are the effective rate on gross, income tax plus employee contributions. The Amsterdam row applies the 30% share; a ruling that started in 2024 or later runs at 27% from 1 January 2027, so its last years and its step are a little smaller than this row.
Why the order comes out this way
Two things set the size of a step: how much of the salary the regime takes out of the tax base, and how steep the ladder that base would otherwise climb. The three at the top of the list score high on both. Milan's impatriati regime keeps half of employment income out of IRPEF, and the half it puts back at expiry lands in the top Italian brackets, so the effective rate moves from 23.6% to 44.5%. Athens does the same arithmetic on a Greek ladder that reaches 44%, which is why a regime with no salary floor at all produces the second-largest step in Europe: €25,627 a year, €2,136 a month. Brussels excludes only 35%, but it excludes it from the steepest ordinary rate of the seven, 49.9% on this salary, so a smaller exclusion of a larger bill still comes third at €24,353.
Amsterdam is the middle of the table on purpose. The ruling takes 30% of the salary out of Box 1, a share between Belgium's 35% and Sweden's 25%, off a Dutch ladder that runs at 41.5% at this level, a little under Italy's and Greece's. The step is €21,751 a year, €1,813 a month, and the rate moves from 24.7% to 41.5%. The two pages that walk this step at EUR 100,000 and EUR 150,000 in euros a month are linked above; the point of this row is that the Dutch cliff people write about most is not the tallest one.
The bottom three are a different design. Madrid and Copenhagen replace the ladder with a flat rate rather than excluding a slice, so the step is the distance between the flat rate and the ordinary rate at that salary: 24% against 39.5% in Madrid, which comes to €16,227, and 32.84% against 39.8% in Copenhagen, which comes to DKK 67,169, the smallest step of the seven in every column because the Danish flat rate is the highest flat rate in the set and Copenhagen's ordinary ladder at this salary is not the steepest. Stockholm excludes a quarter of the salary from a ladder that runs at 37.2%, and its step of SEK 177,885 lands within a few hundred dollars of Madrid's once both are converted. What each of those two regimes is worth at other salaries, and what happens to the step on the way up, is on the Nordic schemes compared and Beckham vs the 30% ruling.
The dollar column tells the same story in the same order, Milan to Copenhagen, which is a useful check on the method: on one salary, the share of gross and the currency figure have to agree, and they do. Where the orders would part company is on the share of net pay lost, because a city with a low regime rate keeps more net for the same gross and the step is a smaller slice of a bigger pile; at this salary that only swaps Milan and Brussels at the top, by a fraction of a point.
When the step lands
The size of the step is one question and its date is another, and the two are set by different parts of each statute. Amsterdam's ruling runs 5 years from the start date on the Belastingdienst's decision, shortened by any earlier Dutch residence, and the Belastingdienst's own page puts it in one line: "Your decision has a duration of up to 5 years." Madrid's Beckham regime covers the arrival year and the 6 years counted from it, so a November arrival spends most of a year on a few weeks of it. Milan's impatriati counts the transfer year plus four, 5 tax periods in all, and Athens counts 7 consecutive tax years. Stockholm's relief runs 7 years from the start of the stay, and Forskarskattenämnden phrases the end the same way for everyone: "Tax relief applies for seven years from the start of your stay in Sweden." Copenhagen's scheme is 7 years counted as 84 months, and Skattestyrelsen allows them to be split across stays, so the Danish step can land twice, once per stay, each time on whatever the salary is that month.
Brussels is the one where the date can move. The regime runs 5 years and the employer can ask for three more before the first five end, so the third-largest step on the page lands after five years or after eight, depending on a request the employee does not file. How each of those clocks is counted, with the arrival-year trap in Spain and Italy, is the subject of how long does the 30% ruling last, and this page does not repeat it; the column that matters here is that the step in the table is one year's value, whichever year it lands in.
The five countries with no step, and one with a smaller one coming
Five countries our engine carries as notes have no step for a salaried arrival because they never lowered the salary's tax in the first place. Lisbon's IFICI turns on an employer certification a calculator cannot see, so our Lisbon figures show ordinary tax and the reader with a certified employer knows their position is better. Dublin's SARP needs six months with the same employer abroad before the move. Oslo's PAYE scheme is a flat 25% for the first year only and stops at NOK 725,050, which Skatteetaten states as an income ceiling above which "you must switch to the general taxation scheme", so a professional salary is never inside it. London's four-year FIG regime relieves foreign income and gains and never touches a UK salary. Warsaw's 12% lump sum is a self-employment option closed to employees. The ordinary layer those five run on, and where it sits beside the seven priced here with no regime applied, is in take-home pay by country.
The Netherlands is the one country on this page whose step is scheduled to shrink. Business.gov.nl records the amendment plainly: "From 1 January 2027 you may pay your employee a maximum of 27% of their wages tax-free," with the salary norm rising to EUR 50,436, and rulings that started before 2024 keeping 30% and the old norm for their whole term. For a 2024 or later starter, the last years of the ruling run at 27%, the value in those years is smaller, and so is the step when it ends; the earlier dip and the later cliff are two separate events on one payslip history, priced on the 27% rate from 2027.
Which regime is worth the most while it runs is a different ranking from this one, and the two disagree in places: Copenhagen is last here and mid-table on rate, because its flat 32.84% is a modest discount on a modest ladder. That ranking, by take-home on the same USD 150,000, is every expat tax regime ranked by take-home, and why we compute these seven and carry five as notes is set out in the cluster's pillar, expat tax breaks decoded. The one piece of advice every single-country page gives applies to all seven rows: size the rent to the "after" column from the first month, and the year the regime ends is a date rather than an event.
FAQ
Do social contributions change when an expat tax regime ends?
In none of the seven. Every regime on this page touches income tax only: Dutch premiums, Belgian RSZ, Greek EFKA, Italian INPS, Spanish social security, Swedish contributions and the Danish labour-market contribution are charged on the full salary throughout the term and after it. The step at expiry is entirely an income-tax step, which is why it scales with how steep the ordinary income-tax ladder is rather than with the size of the whole tax bill.
Is the drop bigger if my salary grew during the regime?
Yes, in every one of the seven. Each regime removes income from the top of a progressive ladder or replaces the ladder with a flat rate, so its value grows as the salary climbs, and the step at expiry is that year's value. Someone who arrived on the floor and left the regime on a senior salary sees a larger step, in currency and as a share of pay, than the USD 150,000 figures here. Run your final-year salary through the calculator with the regime on and off.
Can you move from one regime to another to avoid the drop?
Only by moving country. Each regime is tied to a move of tax residence into that country, and most carry a look-back that bars anyone who was recently resident there: ten years for Denmark, five of the previous six for Greece, five for Spain, three for Italy. Leaving Amsterdam for Madrid when the ruling ends starts Beckham's six years if you qualify, and it moves your life, your rent and your ordinary tax rate with it. The regime is one line; the country is the rest of the page.
Is the drop at expiry the same as the value of the regime?
For one year, yes: the step is the regime's annual value reversed, the same salary taxed once with the relief and once without. It is not the value over the term, which is that figure multiplied by the years and moved by every raise inside them. The term totals are on the page that ranks the regimes by how long they last.
To see the step at your own salary, put your package into the New York to Amsterdam comparison or any pair into the calculator with the regime switched on, then switch it off. The gap between the two runs is your row in this table, and the second run is the budget.
Sources. Netherlands, the five-year maximum and the 2026 norm and cap: Belastingdienst, the expat scheme (30% facility); the 27% share and the higher norm from 1 January 2027 with the transitional rule: Business.gov.nl, 30% ruling compensation down to 27%. Sweden, 25% exempt and seven years from the start of the stay: Forskarskattenämnden, about tax relief. Denmark, 32.84% for up to seven years and the 84 months: Skattestyrelsen, tax scheme for researchers. Norway, the 25% rate and the NOK 725,050 ceiling: Skatteetaten, PAYE for foreign workers. Spain, the flat rate and the arrival year plus five: Agencia Tributaria, Manual práctico de Renta 2025. Italy, the 50% exclusion and the five tax periods: Agenzia delle Entrate, lavoratori impatriati. Belgium, five years and the three-year extension on the employer's request: FPS Finance, inpatriate taxpayers and researchers. Greece, the 50% exemption for seven years: Iason Skouzos TaxLaw, the 5C regime (a law-firm summary; AADE refuses automated retrieval). Dutch, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian pages retrieved 26 September 2026; the others were read for the earlier regime pages this month. Every computed figure is from cityparity's engine; per-field provenance is in data/_meta.json, per the methodology.
Figures here come from cityparity's per-city engine and were current at publication; tax rates, regime terms and exchange rates move, so treat any single number as a strong estimate and run your own inputs. Where our comparison pages quote an equivalent salary, it is the bar an offer has to clear in the destination city and it is not a job offer. See the methodology.