Mobility: tax alert

November 2016

Netherlands
Implementation of European Intra Company Transfer Directive will affect
the Dutch immigration rules for intra company transfer permits
Executive summary
The Dutch legislator has recently published regulations
for the implementation of the EU directive on temporary
intra-company transfers (The ICT Directive). The new
regulations will enter into force as of 29 November
2016 and will limit the duration of secondments into the
Netherlands from outside EU member states to three
years for managers and specialists and to one year for
trainees. These periods are not renewable.
The change does not impact local hires or assignees who
are currently in the Netherlands and are already in the
possession of a highly skilled migrant permit issued
before 29 November 2016. However, it is expected to
present difficulties for organizations who arrange
secondments to the Netherlands for more than three
years.
Scope of the Directive
The ICT Directive is part of an initiative to improve the
relocation of highly skilled non EU nationals into and
within the European Union by international
organizations.
It applies if:
The assignee does not have the nationality of an EU
member state.
The assignee is transferred within an international
group of companies. No annual turnover applies so
both small and large-sized multinationals falls under
the directive.

The assignee has an employment contract with an

entity outside the EU which belongs to the group.
The assignee is a manager, specialist or trainee.
Precedence over national legislation
The Directive does not allow Member States to have
their own national intra company transfer work permit
scheme. Therefore the Directive will directly affect the
Dutch highly skilled migrant program. If the ICT
Directive applies, the highly skilled migrant program can
no longer be used. The Directive does not apply to
assignees on an intra-company transfer under a local
contact rather than a secondment. These employees can
still make use of the highly skilled migrant program.
Also, assignees who come from outside the EU to the
Netherlands where the duration of stay is limited to 90
days, do not fall under the directive. This means they
can still apply for a short term work permit for highly
skilled migrants.
Conditions for the permit
The assignee has been employed by the foreign
entity of the international group for at least three
months prior to the transfer.
The salary is in accordance with Dutch market
standards.
The assignee has his main residence outside the
Netherlands at the time of the application.
The assignee has not been in the EU during the last
six months under the ICT Directive.

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The type of permit is called an intra-corporate transferee permit.

Salary level
No salary threshold exists. However, the salary must be in accordance with
Dutch market standards. This will be approximately the salary levels that are
applicable for the highly skilled migrant program: if the employee is above 30
years of age this is 4,240 per month, or 3,108 if the employee is under 30
years.
Decision time
Based on the ICT directive the authorities may take a maximum of 90 days to
decide on an application for an intra-corporate transferee permit. The
Netherlands has, however, announced that a fast track procedure will apply
for recognized sponsors which will reduce the decision time to two to three
weeks.
Intra EU-mobility
If the assignee is in the possession of a Dutch ICT permit they are allowed to
work for another group entity in another member state. A notification to the
authorities in the other Member State is sufficient to start working
immediately for the group entity in the other Member State. The maximum
duration in the other member state is 90 days in a 180 day period. This only
applies if the other Member State has implemented the Directive as well.
Although the deadline is set at 29 November 2016 it is expected that not all
Member States will have implemented the Directive by this date.
For stays longer than 90 days in another Member State it is possible to apply
for a second ICT residence permit whilst keeping the ICT residence permit in
the first Member State. The employee can start working immediately after
submitting the residence permit application for the second country.
Next steps
Employers should ensure that assignments of non-EU nationals to the
Netherlands are planned in line with the maximum duration of three years.
Where such assignments are expected to exceed three years it will be
necessary to consider transferring the assignee on a local contact with the
Dutch entity.

Edith de Bourgraaf
Tel:
+31 88 407 83 12
Email: edith.de.bourgraaf@nl.ey.com
Anne KwintBijleveld
Tel:
+31 88 407 12 54
Email: anne.bijleveld@nl.ey.com
Natasha Laarabi
Tel:
+31 88 407 83 07
Email: natasha.laarabi@nl.ey.com

Mobility: tax alert

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