At the end of October 2018 the text of the new proposed transition legislation has been published regarding the decrease of the 30% duration from 8 to 5 years per next year.

The duration to 5 years is not postponed A lot of Dutch news agencies mentioned and still mention that the measure to decrease the duration to 5 years of the 30% ruling has been postponed for 2 years altogether. That is not correct. The proposed measure mentions that persons having a valid ruling per 31 December 2018, will keep his/her ruling up to the end of its duration with a maximum of 31 December 2020. At first this might look reasonable but the measure works out in a random and unfair manner. Complex and unfair transition rules Persons having the obtained the ruling on say 1 January 2016 will lose their ruling on 1 January 2021 (instead of 1 January 2024). With a postponement of 2 years this person would have the ruling for the full 8 years, but that is not the only difference. The proposed transition rule works out as follows in these examples: Ruling obtained      Effective duration     Compared to original ruling 1/1/2018                     5 years                                   minus 3 years 1/1/2017                     5 years                                   minus 3 years 1/1/2016                     5 years                                   minus 3 years 1/1/2015                     6 years                                   minus 2 years 1/1/2014                     7 years                                   minus 1 year 1/1/2013                     8 years                                   no change to original ruling 1/1/2012                     8 years                                   no change to original ruling Can anybody who is not from the Ministry of Finance explain with dry eyes why under this new rule a person having obtained the ruling on 1 January 2014 should have the ruling for 7 years and somebody with a ruling issued a only year later for 6 years and a year later for 5 years? A transition measure should work out equally for all persons affected by adverse legislation. This is truly a random ‘Act’ of unfairness. Apart from this, we still feel that for all these persons the full 8 years should be granted as this duration is explicitly mentioned in the ruling itself. In our view due this random ‘Act’ of legislation, the chances of successfully litigating have now been improved for people who will be affected by this measure (ruling obtained in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 or 2018). Please notify Migrantic that you want to be included in our upcoming class action suit against the Dutch State under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) if the Bill would pass Parliament. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about an obtained 30%-ruling.