No Employment Tax Credit for RVU Payments
Publication Date: August 8, 2025
Recently, the Zeeland-West Brabant District Court issued a ruling on whether the employment tax credit (arbeidskorting) may be applied when receiving Early Retirement Scheme (RVU) payments. According to the tax inspector, this is not allowed, and the court agreed.
On 3 July 2025, the Zeeland-West Brabant District Court held that RVU payments are not eligible for the employment tax credit (arbeidskorting). The case involved a former police officer who received RVU payments from his former employer as a gap payment until reaching the state pension age. In his tax return, he classified these payments as wages from current employment and claimed the employment tax credit.
The Dutch Tax and Customs Administration rejected this claim, classifying the payments as wages from former employment, to which the employment tax credit does not apply. The court upheld this position: there was no actual work being performed, and the employer had explicitly designated the payments as early retirement benefits without applying the employment tax credit.
This ruling confirms that RVU payments generally do not qualify as wages from current employment. Only in exceptional cases, such as when the recipient is contractually obliged to remain available for work, this could be different. In most situations, however, the “green tax table” applies and entitlement to the employment tax credit lapses.
This decision is relevant for both employers and employees involved in early retirement arrangements, such as “generation pact” schemes or senior staff arrangements.
Finally, a point that was not addressed in this case but is frequently raised in practice: pension accrual during an RVU payment period. In line with this ruling, pension accrual is generally not possible while receiving RVU benefits, as there is no active employment—an essential condition for pension accrual. A partial exception to this rule applies under the “generation pact” scheme, where it is explicitly allowed to work fewer hours while accruing pension over a higher reference salary.
