Guides
Explainers that sit behind the country pages: what the numbers mean, what the official wording actually requires, and where people get caught out.
Germany income tax brackets: 2024, 2025 and 2026 compared
The rates have not changed in three years — 14%, 42% and 45% are identical throughout. Every threshold moved. And the 2024 figure most sources print is superseded.
Netherlands income tax brackets: 2024, 2025 and 2026 compared
In 2024 there were two bands; in 2025 there were three. And the falling headline rate is not a tax cut — the national insurance half has not moved since 2024.
Why some visa thresholds have no published number
A salary threshold set by law as a formula is not the same thing as a salary threshold you can quote. Portugal still shows why. Spain stopped showing it twice over, and both corrections are on this page rather than edited away.
Salary thresholds are formulas, not numbers
Six countries, six different machines for producing one figure — and only one of them publishes the figure itself on a page you would think to check. What drives each threshold, when it moves, and how to tell whether the number you found is still true.
Spain's two highly qualified routes now ask the same salary
€41,356.36 a year, either way. The EU Blue Card and the national authorisation were priced apart for years; since June 2026 they are not. The difference that is left is whether you can qualify for less.
Spain's digital nomad visa income requirement, derived from the law
For 2026 the figure is €2,849 a month for a single applicant. Here is the arithmetic it comes from — and why the other numbers you have seen are not wrong so much as answering a different question.
Moving to the Netherlands from the US: the number that decides it
For an American the Dutch route turns on one salary figure and one fact about who applies. In 2026 that figure is €5,942 a month — about 1.42 times what a full-time worker in the Netherlands actually earns.
What counts as salary for a work visa, and what does not
Four countries, four different definitions of the same word. Comparing your offer with the published threshold is only safe once you know which parts of the offer the authority actually counts.
EU Blue Card or the national permit: which route is easier
Where both routes exist, the national one is often the easier door — and in the Netherlands the gap is large enough to decide the question for a recent graduate.
The UK going rate: why the published threshold may not apply to you
The Skilled Worker route has two salary tests, and the one everybody quotes is often the one that does not bind.
Ireland has no tax-free allowance, and it changes the arithmetic
Income tax starts on the first euro. Credits then reduce the bill — which means the obvious calculation overstates what you owe, sometimes dramatically.
The Dutch 30% ruling in 2027: what changes and who keeps 30%
The maximum tax-free share drops to 27% — but not for everybody, and not on the schedule that was announced first. Two details decide which rate applies to you.
Why Germany's Blue Card salary changes every January
Germany does not decide the figure. It is calculated from the pension insurance ceiling, which means it moves every year without anyone announcing a policy change.