Monday, MP Omtzigt submitted an amendment to the section of the law on the 30 percent facility for highly-educated employees from abroad. To compensate for the high costs associated to their stay in the Netherlands, these expats are currently enjoying a five-year exemption from paying tax on up to 30 percent of their salaries.
If Omtzigt has his way, this scheme will become more austere. He wants the expats, who also work in higher education and research, to be eligible for the 30 percent facility for a maximum duration of twenty months as of 1 January 2024. In the twenty months after that, there would be a 20 percent facility and in the remaining twenty months a 10 percent facility would apply.
194 million
According to Omtzigt, this would save the treasury millions of euros, from 3 million euros in 2025 to 194 million euros in 2029 and beyond. Omtzigt is asking the government 'to use the entirety of the freed-up budget to decrease the interest on student loans incurred by the unlucky students (who didn’t receive the basic student grant during their studies)'.
This month it was announced that the interest on student debts will increase five-fold as of 1 January. The Dutch Student Union is organising an 'interest protest' in the Hague on Wednesday.
