30% ruling information What is the 30% ruling?

The 30% ruling is a special tax regime for employees recruited or assigned from abroad to the Netherlands. The purpose of this ruling is to attract highly skilled professionals from foreign countries with skills and experience which is scarce on the Dutch Labour market. The 30% ruling implies that an employer can pay to an employee a tax-free allowance of up to 30% of the employees wage for extra expenses incurred by staying in the Netherlands. The effect of this ruling is that the effective rate of wage tax is being reduced. To obtain the 30% ruling a request has to be made with the Dutch Tax Authorities and several conditions have to be fulfilled. Conditions The following conditions apply for the 30% ruling: The employee must be recruited or assigned from abroad to the Netherlands (is applicable for every nationality, even Dutch) The employee must have specific knowledge and experience which is scarce on the Dutch Labour market To determine if the employee has specific knowledge and experience they will mainly look at the following factors: Highly qualified and specialized education Relevant work experience of the employee for the specific employment in the Netherlands The salary of the specific employment in the Netherlands in relation to the salary of his or her country of origin. This salary should be comparable to the salary level in the Netherlands. Employees who have been working within Accenture in a similar position for a minimum period of 2,5 years are expected to have specific knowledge and experience. In principle, the following employees are eligible for the 30% facility: managers with special skills, scientists, employees in key positions and employees in job rotation, provided that they have at least 2.5 years of relevant work experience. Generally not eligible for the 30% facility are employees with little education or low salaries, trainees, entrepreneurs, little experience in practice and self-employed people. Application procedure To be eligible, the employer and employee must file a joint request with the Dutch Tax Authorities within 4 months after the start of the employment in the Netherlands to have retroactive effect as from the start of the employment. This rule will be applied strictly. If the request for the 30% ruling has not been filed within the 4 months, it may still be applied for and can be granted starting from the month after the month in which the request has been lodged. Documents and information needed for the 30% ruling application Passport copy

 Sofinumber (Dutch tax registration number) Copy of work permit and/or residence permit (if applicable) Curriculum vitae Copy of your employment contract A statement that the employee was hired because of a specific expertise that is not, or scarcely, available on the Dutch labour market including a detailed description of the job signed by the employer Questionnaire Signed power of attorney 30% duration period and possible reduction of this period The 30% ruling is in principle granted for a maximum period of ten years, calculated from the employment start date. This period will be reduced if the employee has previously been employed or has previously resided in the Netherlands. To be eligible for the 30% ruling, the employee should not have worked or resided in the Netherlands in the 10 years previous to the 30% ruling application. In case the employee did however reside and/or work in the Netherlands in these 10 years, the Tax Authorities will look at the 15 years before and the maximum period can be reduced. Please contact RMS in this case, as this is a quite complicated calculation. Administrative requirements The 30% ruling has to be laid down in the employment contract between employer and employee. Basis for the 30% ruling The 30% ruling can be applied to a regularly paid salary, which includes bonuses, holiday payments and other payments which are part of an employee salary. Payments made as a result of termination of the employment by the employer are not included in the definition of a regularly paid salary and do not fall under the scope of the 30% ruling. Calculating the 30% allowance According to the regulations of the 30% ruling the initial agreed salary (and allowances) of the employee has to be reduced to 70% as soon as the employee is entitled to the 30% ruling. In addition the employee receives a 30% allowance equal to 30/70 of the compensation, which means the following: (salary (70%) plus allowances (not the taxfree allowances!) (70%) minus Dutch social security contribution minus employee pension contributions) : 70*30 Impact of the 30% ruling on social security and pensionable base Since the contractual gross salary has to be reduced (70%) in view of the fact that a tax free 30% allowance is given, employee insurance contributions are due on this lower salary only. Therefore, future benefits will be lower too. Also pension rights may be accrued on the actual gross salary (70%)

only, so not on the 30% tax free allowance.