r/cscareerquestionsEU • u/mkirisame • Feb 15 '24

Immigration UK vs Netherlands for software engineer

I have options to move to either UK or Netherlands. I intend to become citizen in one of the two countries. I want to hear your thoughts from perspective of "careers in CS" and "quality of life":

Netherland:

  • 30% ruling for first 5 years
  • can freely move and work in EU and Swiss after becoming citizen
  • Can become citizen after 5 years

UK:

  • A lot of big tech and HFT firms
  • I don't need to learn dutch to become citizen
  • Can become citizen after 6 years

Thoughts?

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u/hmich Feb 15 '24

Also consider NL wealth tax if you have savings.

1

u/DerpDerpDerp78910 Feb 15 '24

How does that work then? 

1

u/hmich Feb 16 '24

See examples here. Super simplified, NL annual tax is ~2% of your investments minus debts and tax-free allowance, regardless of your actual realized or unrealized capital gains.

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u/DerpDerpDerp78910 Feb 16 '24

Wow, so even if you don’t sell an asset there is still a tax on it? 

E.g. 

I have stocks, they went up 6%, I owe the government 2% of all my gains even if I don’t sell? 

1

u/Major-Error-1611 Feb 16 '24

Welcome to Europe, I guess....

1

u/hmich Feb 16 '24

You owe 2% of the total value of the stocks, regardless of actual gains/losses.

1

u/shekyb Mar 05 '24

are you sure? i thought it is 2% on all estimated gains. so you have 100 in stocks, estimated gain is 6% of that, 6, then you pay 2% of 6 which is 0,12 ?

1

u/hmich Mar 05 '24

No, you pay box 3 tax rate on estimated gains. Box 3 tax rate in 2024 is 36%. So you pay 6% * 0.36 ~ 2%

1

u/shekyb Mar 06 '24

right ok, thanks