Readit Newsthroaway-1931 commented on What should I expect from moving tech jobs from USA to Europe? · Posted by u/tech_lizzard
Move to The Netherlands, you'll earn anywhere between 50-100k depending on your exact skillset. Importantly we have a special ruling (the 30% rule) which means that you get 5 years paying basically no tax.
Housing is expensive - I watched Louis Rossman's videos a couple of years ago when he was looking for property around NYC and was shocked at the relatively low prices ($500k for large detached houses within 30-45mins commute of a major city at a time when it'd cost $700k for something similar here).
It took me a year to get to C1 level in Dutch when I came over 20 years ago but many people don't bother. You need that to get citizenship (after 5 years of residency) so I would recommend it. Cost me $3k at a Uni fast track (3 x 2 hour a week for a year) to do, most employers will be flexible to enable you to do it.
Where can you find large detached houses for 500k in the Netherlands?
Also, 30% ruling doesn't mean paying 0 tax (https://thetax.nl) and it's not guaranteed. The government decided that 8 years was too much and decided to lower it for people already in the country. I know it well, it happened to me.
throaway-1931 commented on Visualized: Presidential Executive Orders opicdata.com/blog/preside... · Posted by u/bigshirtjonny
I don't think anyone cares about the number orders but what each is actually mandating.
Even if anybody cared, the fact that he ran out of his "normal amount" of executive orders for the year in A MONTH should raise an eyebrow or two
throaway-1931 commented on CFPB's 1,700 employees told to "not perform any work" nypost.com/2025/02/10/us-... · Posted by u/dataflow
the way US bureacrats envision regulation is wrong imo.
They only increase cost of doing business and add overhead on the consumer (one more document to sign that nobody reads, when closing a loan).
I really dont understand what these 1700 people accomplish productive every day to justify the agency's existence.
If they are doing something manual, this ought to be automated. If they are manually enforcing something - this ought to be encoded in laws and should not require post-hoc enforcement.
From the article:
"Supporters highlight its work to penalize large companies, including banks, for allegedly mistreating clients — with the bureau claiming in 2023 that it had restored $17.5 billion to Americans over the previous 12 years “in the form of monetary compensation, principal reductions, canceled debts, and other consumer relief.”
Last year, the CFPB finalized a rule capping credit card late payment fees at $8 — down from an average of $32 — which it estimated would save consumers $14 billion per year."
Considering the US citizens their shareholders, I would like to see how many private organisations of that size have such an impact in just 12 years.
Around 20 million people are feed by their agriculture. I think it's fair that a country and not EU decides if they want to have local agriculture or not.
Actually is the EU (well, all the member states together) with the Common Agricultural Policy who decides, as without subsidies there would be no industry. Why do you think that the BBB (Farmer's party) doesn't want out of the EU?
> Around 20 million people are feed by their agriculture
This is a nice political slogan, however I don't think it's true. Just go to your local supermarket and try to find anything of Dutch origin besides tomatoes, meat, eggs and milk.
By the way, I support the idea of each country having their own strategies resources guaranteed, and this includes food.
The issue here in my opinion is the way they grow the produce. They could grow less, export less and pollute less. As an example: From all the EU exports, eggs of NL origin represented 42%, while poultry meat represented 23% [1] (2013 data) This makes absolutely no sense in a country of the size of the Netherlands and it makes even less sense considering they are selling them very cheap, as you can see by the low GDP impact of the whole industry.
[1] https://zootecnicainternational.com/focus-on/netherlands-lea...
> The "regulation that comes from the EU" was redacted and implemented by the Dutch government
This is partially true. The directive of the regulation came from the EU, the concrete implementation from NL. And at that point it was not clear to anybody that nitrogen deposit restriction would be such an important part of it. But, in that way, the Dutch are responsible for the problems that this regulation currently causes. However, if it would have been purely a Dutch regulation, the Dutch could simply amend it or drop it altogether. Since the regulation comes from the EU, this is not an option.
> ... the nitrogen limitation was introduced in the Dutch implementation of the directive and it's not present in the regulation of most of the other countries.
The nitrogen limitation was not specifically mentioned in the initial Dutch implementation, nor was it in the EU directive. It followed from the principle in the EU directive; that nature in the Natura 2000 area's is not allowed to deteriorate. The reason it is on the Dutch agenda at all, is that Dutch environmental organisations realized that nitrogen was a threat and even took the Dutch government to court to act on it.
> How the housing crisis relates (in a tiny part), with this specific environmental regulation ...
When the Dutch government lost the case about handling nitrogen in 2019, 18000 building projects had to be halted. That's no tiny part.
> Since the regulation comes from the EU, this is not an option
You are right in that they cannot drop it, but they can amend it. The issue is that if they want to drop the nitrogen requirement they would have to come with scientific arguments on how the nitrogen limits doesn't hurt the protected areas, or alternative means to protect those areas from the nitrogen.
> The reason it is on the Dutch agenda at all, is that Dutch environmental organisations realized that nitrogen was a threat and even took the Dutch government to court to act on it
I fully agree with your point
> 18000 building projects had to be halted. That's no tiny part
I'm sorry I wasn't clear in my comment, it's definitively not a tiny part of the total building projects (for context, currently in NL there are like 75k ongoing), but of the housing crisis as a whole.
In my opinion there are many issues with housing in this country. ie. Empty houses due to investors not wanting to rent, cultural tendency for low population density projects, lack of labor, massive (badly implemented) intervention from the government, etc.
Dead Comment
The ruling applies for 5 years so of course you can't expect it for 8 years in a row.
I know a few people who have used it. If you own a house and have any entitlements then you're either paying a few EUR or are getting back a few EUR (so NET INCOME is higher than your GROSS INCOME).
I personally didn't use it because I believe in paying my fair share. As a high earner it's wrong to be a leech. Although I've since learned that the multi-billionaire families here have an even better deal (1% effective tax rate) that I've since changed my mind.
It is an extremely generous ruling which makes it possible for people who wish to migrate here with families to make the jump. You get to keep almost all of your money for a few years but are expected to use it to integrate and cover your migration costs (which it does).
The ruling, in its current implementation, gives foreigners 27% of their salary tax free, which for highest tax interval is close to 50. There is a maximum you can apply to though.
When you own a house you get a tax deduction from the interests you pay for the mortgage. For what I understand, that tax deduction is limited by your taxable salary, so I don't understand how the 27% ruling can be abused, since that reduces your taxable salary. I wouldn't be surprised though, the Netherlands have a ton of "optional" laws and tricks that allow people to "legally" evade taxes.
There is a common misconception that populist politicians exploit where they claim that the ruling is a subsidies for employees. This is not true, it helps the IT sector to hire people from abroad on the cheap side. eg. the only reason I'm here and not in Ireland is because of the ruling: The base salary in Ireland was way higher, but in NL with the ruling it was basically the same. After I arrived I noticed that I was lowballed hard compared to my native colleagues, and that continued on other job offers after I shared with them I was still in the ruling.
Finally, I would really think twice coming to the Netherlands today considering the ruling, with the current government it's definitively not guaranteed [1]
[1] https://www.dutchnews.nl/2025/02/omtzigt-takes-aim-at-expat-...