Regulations for reimbursement of removal expenses, commuting expense allowance and allowance for boarding costs TU/e. (compliance with article 3.21 CAO [Collective Labour Agreement])

Clause 1

1. In these regulations the following terms shall have the meanings attributed to them here:

• a. management unit: a part of the university designated by the Executive Board, or an external organisation linked to the university, that is managed separately; 
• b. manager: the person who is charged with the management of a management unit under a mandate or sub-mandate;
• c. employee: the person employed by Technische Universiteit Eindhoven;
• d. travelling distance: distance in kilometres, measured through the Routeplanner ANWB (shortest route) from the postal code of the residential dwelling to that of Den Dolech 2, 5612 AZ, Eindhoven.

2. The provisions of these regulations shall not apply to student-assistants.

Clause 2
Removal obligation:

1. An employee shall not be obliged to move house, unless a removal obligation is imposed.

2. A removal obligation may only be imposed if that is required in the interests of the employer; such an obligation shall be imposed in writing.

3. The persons on whom a removal obligation has been imposed, shall have removed to a place of residence within a radius of 10 km from the TU/E within the period of one year after the removal obligation is been imposed.

4. That period may be extended by one year at the most.

Clause 3
Entitlement to reimbursement of removal expenses:

1. An employee on whom a removal obligation has been imposed, shall be entitled to reimbursement of removal expenses if he or she effectively moves house within the removal term.

2. *Other employees residing outside a circle with a radius of 25 km, with the TU/e being the centre of that circle, who move house to a place of residence within a circle with a radius of 10 km as mentioned above within a term of two years calculated from the date of appointment or within a term of one year calculated from the date of appointment where it concerns a temporary appointment for a period of at least two years, shall be entitled to reimbursement of removal expenses. In determining the number of kilometres, use shall be made of the aforementioned route planner.

3. Reimbursement of removal expenses shall occur only once.

*Tax regulations as from 2009.
For an employer to reimburst removal expenses taxfree the removal has to be connected to the employment. Sufficient connection with the employment is assumed when the conditions of 2 years and the distances of 25 and 10 km are met. In any other case to grant a taxfree reimbursement the connection with the employment has to be made plausible. When a connection can not be made plausible, a reinmbursement can not be granted taxfree. The managing director will be judging in this matter.
Employees living less then 25 km from work cannot apply for a taxfree reimbursement.

Clause 4
Determining the removal expenses to be reimbursed:

1. The reimbursement of removal expenses shall consist of a partial compensation for the costs of transportation and of refurnishment. The maximum reimbursement shall be  € 2268.90 for PhD-students/TOIOs and € 4537.80 for other employees. With due observance of the maximum amounts, the removal and refurnishment expenses shall be compensated for in the following manner:

1. Removal expenses (cost of moving the household effects) shall be reimbursed upon submission of the original invoices.
2. For the other costs (refurnishment expenses, costs of travel in the Netherlands and double rent if applicable) a compensation shall be paid to the tune of € 1542,85 for PhD-students /TOIOs and € 2722,68 for other employees. No invoices need to be submitted for those other costs.

Also the travel expences of an employee from abroad and his family-members for the removal to the Netherlands will be reimbursed upon submission of original invoices (tickets a.o.) or declaration based on kilometers in case of traveling by car (€ 0,19 per km tax-free)

2. Employees who are each other's partner and who are entitled to reimbursement for removal expenses shall both receive 50% of the compensation.

3. Employees who must move house from abroad into the Netherlands as a consequence of the start of their employment at TU/e, shall be entitled to reimbursement of removal expenses provided that they are going to reside within a circle with a radius of 10 km from the TU/e. Moreover, the manager may decide to pay special costs related to moving house from abroad by way of compensation. A motivated written request must be submitted, together with the application for the reimbursement of removal expenses.

Clause 5
Application and payment: The employee shall apply for reimbursement of removal expenses at the personnel department of his / her management unit by means of a form that is available there, within two months after the removal, upon submission of the relevant invoices.

Clause 6
Repayment of removal compensation:

1. The person who has received a removal compensation and is dismissed or resigns as an employee of the TU/e at his or her own request or as a consequences of facts or circumstances for which he himself or she herself can be blamed within one year after the removal, shall be obliged to repay a proportional part of the removal compensation.

2. The amount to be repaid shall be the removal compensation reduced by a twelfth part of that compensation for each month that the employee has been employed from the date of his or her moving house.

3. If paragraph 1 of this clause applies, a repayment schedule shall be agreed upon with the employee.

Clause 7
The following categories of employees shall be entitled to a compensation for the cost of commuting:

1. Employees who are obliged to move house for as long as they have not moved yet and maximally during the removal term applying to them;

2. regular and temporary employees who reside at a single distance of no more than 50 km from the TU/e;

3. regular and temporary employees that reside at a single distance of more than 50 km from the TU/e, a compensation over 50 km.

Clause 8
Amount of the compensation:

1. The compensation is based on the costs of an NS (Dutch Railways) annual track card 2nd class and amounts to 75% of the NS annual track tariff in proportion to the number of days of travelling during each week (5 days at the most).

2. The distance for the NS annual track tariff to be used is determined by the comparison of postal codes (clause1, paragraph d); 1 km = 1 NS unit; to be rounded off downwards or upwards to full km units (upwards starting from 0.5). 3. In order to safeguard against a compensation being paid in the case of small distances, that is excessive from a tax point of view, two methods of calculation shall be used:

• 1. Compensation in the event of a single travelling distance of 1 up to and including 9 km: 75% x distance travelled x 52 weeks x km amount TU/e.. Kilometre amount TU/e is determined on the basis of the tariff annual track card for 10 NS units: 20 km : 206 days : 1.7
• 2. Compensation in the event of single travelling distance of 10 to maximally 50 km.: 75% x the NS annual track tariff belonging to the travelling distance

4. Employees with a main job elsewhere and a travelling distance of more than 50 km, will receive a compensation as mentioned above under 3.2 up to and including the maximum NS annual track tariff (90kms). A main job is the employment involving the largest amount of time.

Clause 9
Deviation from the compensation for costs of public transport:

1. Laboratory assistants and trainees shall receive the travelling costs for public transport 2nd class actually incurred by them.

2. Temporary employees who reside at a single travelling distance of more than 50 km shall receive the compensation as referred to in clause 8 paragraph 3.2 over the entire travelling distance during one year at the most. After that year clause 7 paragraph 3 shall apply again.

Clause 10
Illness: If the employee in question is sick during a consecutive period of more than one month, the payment as referred to in clause 8, shall be stopped. The payment shall be received starting from the date on which the employee is reported as having recovered.

Clause 11
Application for commuting expense allowance: Upon commencement of his or her employment and upon the change of his or her address the employee shall be granted the commuting allowance automatically. The allowance shall be paid each month together with the salary.

Clause 12
Boarding allowance:

1. Employees who, given the distance from their place of residence to the TU/e are compelled to spend the night in or in the near environment of Eindhoven, may receive an allowance for this, towards the costs effectively incurred up to a maximum amount of € 272.- a month (taxfree for a period of max. 2 years).

2. The following categories of employees may claim such an allowance:

• a. employees who are obliged to move house, for as long as they have not moved yet and at the most during the removal term applying to them;
• b. employees who are not obliged to move house who upon their appointment have declared in writing that they would move house, for as long as they have not moved yet and during a term of one year at the most;
• c. part-time employees who have their main job elsewhere and who must spend the night in or in the environment of Eindhoven as a consequence of their work for the TU/e.

3. Laboratory assistants and trainees who, given the distance from their place of residence to the TU/e are compelled to spend the night in or in the near environment of Eindhoven, may receive an allowance for this of  € 57.- a month.

4. The categories of employees referred to in paragraph 2 shall be eligible for receiving a compensation for costs of travel for family visits. The compensation shall be calculated on the basis of the costs of public transport with a maximum of € 91.- a month.

Clause 13
Application for boarding allowance: The employee shall apply for the boarding allowance each month at the salary administration department through a form available there.

Clause 14

Transitional arrangements:

1. An obligation to move imposed earlier shall become null and void upon these regulations becoming effective, in as far as the manager does not determine otherwise within 3 months after these regulations have become effective.

2. Claims regarding a removal compensation that have arisen prior to this decision  becoming effective, shall remain effective in as far as those claims are higher than the compensation under this compensation regulations.

Clause 15
Final provision: These regulations shall become effective from 1 January 1997 and may be quoted as:" Regulations for reimbursement of removal expenses, commuting expense allowance and allowance for boarding costs TU/e". This was determined at the meeting of the Executive Board on 24 October 1996 and amended as of the effective date of 1-1-2007.

Although this has not been provided for in the new regulations, the Board is of the opinion that if there are well-founded grounds for it, a managing director may decide to grant a compensation that deviated from the regulations. However, within that framework the following restrictions should be observed:

• a different compensation shall only be granted in exceptional cases;
• the compensation deviating from the regulations shall not be allowed to be more than the amount of the costs for moving house, commuting or boarding actually incurred;
• arrangements made with an employee about the granting of a compensation that is deviating from the regulations shall be laid down in writing with mentioning of the reasons thereof, and shall be notified to the employee and to the person responsible for the execution of the regulations, namely the Head of the Personnel and Salary Administration Department;
• the deviating compensation shall always be granted for a definite term not exceeding one year;
• after the lapse of the term, it shall be looked into whether the granting of the deviating compensation will be continued or amended or cancelled.

Arrangements deviating from the regulations shall be submitted to the personnel administration department in writing.

The Dutch Tax Office has a special regulation that can be used for employees who are recruited from abroad and who have a specific expertise, which is either scarce in the Netherlands or unavailable in the Dutch job market. This regulation is called the 30% facility.
This regulation stipulates that an employer can grant maximum 30% of the gross salary under certain conditions in the form of untaxed expense allowance: the 30% allowance. Untaxed means that there is no statutory payroll tax or social security premiums deducted from this allowance. The 30% allowance is meant to compensate for the extra costs related to accepting a job position (sometimes temporary) outside of one's own country, what is known 'extraterritorial costs'.
Since 2011 the Eindhoven University of Technology has incorporated the 30% Facility within the Selection Model Governing Employment Conditions. That means that the employee may exchange a part of his/her gross salary for a net expenses allowance: the 30% allowance.
This results in a higher net salary. Normally, the employee will not accrue pension over the 30% allowance, but including it in the Selection Model gives him/her the advantage that pension is accrued over this amount as well. Using the 30% Tax Ruling has a number of consequences for the employee:

1. The 30% allowance is calculated over the monthly salary, vacation allowance and end-year bonus.
2. Since by using the 30% tax ruling the employee uses the Selection Model to the maximum extent, he/she cannot utilize the rest of the money-related exchange options in the Selection Model. One can only utilize the time-based options such as flexible working hours, saving for a sabbatical, extended parental leave, etc.
3. The employee cannot claim any further compensation for extraterritorial costs, such as untaxed reimbursement for the double moving costs.
4. The employee is not eligible for a Labor-market-related allowance according to article 3.14 CAO NU
5. No premiums are deducted for the employee's insurance schemes (WW, WIA) over the untaxed expense allowance (30% allowance). Any future benefits based on these regulations will therefore be lower.
6. Following the time period in which the 30% allowance rule is applicable, the net income falls back to the original level. The employee cannot make any claim for compensation as a result in this drop in income.

PhD students can not participate in the 30% facility.

If you want to learn more about the 30% facility, please visit the website of the 'Belastingdienst'.