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Terms of Employment Individual Choices Model

The Terms of Employment Individual Choices Model gives you some freedom to select your own terms and conditions.

The Individual Choices Model allows you to exchange particular terms and conditions for other terms and conditions. The terms and conditions themselves are seen in this context as sources and targets. You can make use of four sources:

  1. Vacation hours (time source)
  2. Monthly salary (monetary source)
  3. Holiday allowance (monetary source)
  4. End-of-year bonus (monetary source)

The above sources can be exchanged for various targets, such as extra vacation hours. More information about applying individual choicemodel, please read this Knowledge Item.

Individual Choices Model Deadlines: 30 April or 30 November

You can submit your application for the Individual Choices Model starting from 1 February:

  • You can use your gross salary up to and including 30 November.
  • You can use your holiday allowance up to and including 30 April.
  • You can use your end-of-year bonus up to and including 31 October.
  • Note: the kilometre allowance is an exception. For this, you can also use your holiday allowance or end-of-year bonus up to and including 30 November.

Fiscal advantage

The Individual Choices Model may in some cases be fiscally advantageous. For example, if you use your gross salary to pay your union fees or sports membership, you will not be taxed on this part of your salary. The example below illustrates how you can calculate your fiscal advantage.

Example of fiscal advantage

Say you wish to pay for your sports membership (target) using a monetary source, such as your end-of-year bonus. The sports membership costs € 200. This € 200 is offset against your gross end-of-year bonus. You will therefore not have to pay tax over this € 200. You will however have to pay 40.4% tax over the remainder of your end-of-year bonus. So in this case your fiscal advantage amounts to € 80.80 (40.4% x € 200).

Who can take part?

All University employees can take part in the Individual Choices Model. The only groups excluded from participation are

  • employees who do not receive a salary from the University,
  • on-call employees, interns, employees who submit a claim for their fees,
  • if your contract of employment has not yet officially started,
  • and student assistants with a contract for less than one year.

If your employment begins in November or December, you will only be able to make use of the Individual Choices Model starting on 1 February of the following calendar year.

Suppose you buy a bicycle before your employment officially starts, or before 1 February if you start in November or December, then you cannot submit it via the Individual Choices Model. 

Consequences for fiscal regulations

You can only offset these expenses if you comply with all fiscal and other rules. By offsetting your expenses in this way, you waiver the right to deduct these same expenses from your income tax. Furthermore, the use of monetary sources such as your salary, holiday allowance or end-of-year bonus may impact other allowances and social security benefits, such as unemployment (WW) or work disability benefits (WIA):

  • The money you use for a target will be deduced from your salary (and/or holiday allowance and end-of-year bonus), leading to a decrease in your social security income. Your social security income consists of your gross salary plus any fixed income components such as a holiday allowance. The amount of unemployment (WW) or work disability (WIA) benefits is calculated on the basis of your social security income. If taking part in the Individual Choices Model leads to a decrease in your gross salary, your WW/WIA benefits will decrease accordingly.
  • An increase or decrease in social security income may have consequences for other allowances, such as housing benefits or health allowance.

Taking part in the Individual Choices Model has no consequences for your pension. The University is not liable for any consequences resulting from the application of these regulations.

Limitations

The Terms of Employment Individual Choices Model has a number of limitations:

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