Andrew

Business manager from United Kingdom

Attached is a picture of my family drawn by my 6 year old daughter (who goes to a Dutch school and is bi-lingual).  We live in Haarlem and will have been in the Netherlands for 6 years in September.  Based on the fact I was expecting to have another 2.5 years of the 30% ruling, last year we signed a 2 year car lease agreement, and bought a house that we had planned to renovate.  Had I known I would be potentially losing my 30% ruling 2 years early, we may not have made the same decisions. As a family we were planning for the ending of my 30% ruling in September 2020 to lessen the impact and ensure we could stay in the Netherlands for the long term.  We love it here and saw it as a great place to raise our children, indeed we saw no reason to move.  This sudden removal of my 30% ruling would add immediate financial pressures and is leading us to consider whether this is the best country to bring our children up in at all.  I have no issue with changes in legislation but to deprive people of an agreement that has significant impact on them financially seems plain wrong to me. It also sends out a terrible message to future skilled migrants who are considering working here.