Bank savings and 30% ruling. Foreign bank accounts. What to declare?

Question:

I have been living in the Netherlands for almost 3 years, and worked for the same company since my arrival. I have the 30% ruling. I have built up some savings here since arriving, and kept this amount in my Dutch bank account. I therefore pay tax in the Netherlands on this each year. If I now send some of the savings abroad, do I still have to declare the sent abroad amount in the annual tax return?

Answer:

Benefit of the 30% ruling is that in the annual income tax return you can opt to be treated as partial non-resident for tax purposes. This means that you can declare your income as if you are a non resident but on the other hand still claim tax deductions as if you are resident. Benefit of this option is that you will not have to declare all your savings and investments in Box 3. Bank savings for example will not have to be declared in your Dutch tax return. The “assumption” is that you will declare these in another country but this will not be checked and is not a requirement at all.

If you did declare your Dutch savings in the past you will have paid too much tax in these years if the savings where higher than the threshold. If the tax return has not been processed by the tax authorities or 6 weeks have not passed  yet since you received the final tax assessment it is still possible to request the tax authorities to adjust the tax return or to object against the tax assessment. If this period has passed already it is still possible to kindly request the tax authorities to reconsider the assessment but this may not be accepted.

In this light it doesn’t make a difference whether you keep your savings on a Dutch bank account or on a foreign bank account. It doesn’t have to be reported in both situations. On the other hand, if you would not opt for partial non residence for tax purposes but choose to be treated as a normal tax resident you would have to report your worldwide savings, so no matter where the bank account would be held.

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