Pieter Omtzigt wants to accelerate the phasing out of the tax credit for highly educated expats. He wants to use the millions that this generates to lower the interest on the student loans of ‘unlucky students’.
MP Omtzigt has an amendment today submitted on the article of law on the so-called 30 percent scheme for highly educated foreign employees. To compensate for their high accommodation costs in the Netherlands, they now do not have to pay tax on a maximum of 30 percent of their wages for five years.
If it were up to Omtzigt, this arrangement would become more austere. He wants these expats, who also work in higher education and research, to be entitled to the 30 percent scheme for a maximum of twenty months from January 1, 2024. As far as he is concerned, a 20 percent scheme applies in the 20 months thereafter and a 10 percent scheme in the twenty remaining months.
194 million
It will generate millions of euros for the treasury, Omtzigt thinks, increasing from 3 million euros in 2025 to 194 million euros in 2029 and the years after. Omtzigt asks the government to “use the released budget entirely to reduce the interest on student loans for students from the unlucky generation (those who studied without a basic grant).
This month it became clear that the interest on student loans will increase as of January 1 fivefold. The National Student Union is organizing an “interest rate protest” in The Hague on Wednesday.
The post first appeared on punt.avans.nl