For the Dutch

How tax residency works

Dutch tax residence is decided on facts and circumstances (feiten en omstandigheden), not a day count. The Tax and Customs Administration (Belastingdienst) looks at where your lasting personal ties are: your home, your partner and children, your work, and where your social and economic life is centred.

Residents are taxed on worldwide income in three boxes: work and home (box 1), a substantial interest in a company (box 2), and savings and investments (box 3). Non residents are taxed only on Dutch income, such as Dutch salary, Dutch property and a substantial interest in a Dutch company.

One rule catches short moves. If you leave and return within a year without having lived in another EU country in between, you are treated as never having left.

Leaving properly

A clean departure combines the formal steps with a real change in how you live. The order below works for most people; your accountant confirms it for your situation.

1. 01

   Deregister from the BRP

   If you will live outside the Netherlands for at least eight months in a year, deregister with your municipality from the Personal Records Database (BRP). You can do it online with DigiD if you move alone; families report in writing or at the desk.

2. 02

   File the M return

   For the year you leave, you file the M return, the income tax return for people who lived in the Netherlands for part of the year. It is filed online, and it is where any conserving assessment is calculated.

3. 03

   Request deferral if needed

   Outside the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA), deferral of a conserving assessment is not automatic. You request it in writing, and the Belastingdienst can ask for security.

4. 04

   Cancel health insurance

   Your Dutch basic health insurance ends with your residence. Cancel it with proof of deregistration and have international cover in place.

5. 05

   Decide on voluntary AOW

   Apply to the Social Insurance Bank (SVB) for voluntary insurance of your AOW, the state pension, before you leave or within one year, to avoid a gap.

6. 06

   Keep your passport valid

   If you already hold a second nationality and live outside the EU, renew your Dutch passport within 13 years of its issue, or you can lose Dutch nationality.

Exit tax, property and investments

The Netherlands has no general exit tax, but it issues a conserving assessment (conserverende aanslag): a tax bill calculated on the day you leave and then held over. It applies to a substantial interest (aanmerkelijk belang), meaning 5% or more of a company’s shares, and to the tax benefit you received on pensions, annuities (lijfrente) and certain home ownership savings products.

For a substantial interest, your shares are treated as sold on departure and the gain is taxed in box 2. Payment falls due, in whole or in part, if you sell the shares, receive dividends or the company stops. For anyone who emigrated after 15 September 2015, this assessment never lapses and cannot be waived after ten years.

For pensions and annuities the assessment runs for ten years. It is collected only if you break the Dutch rules in that time, for example by commuting the pension into a lump sum, and after ten years you can ask for it to be waived.

A Dutch home you keep is taxed, once you are non resident, as Dutch property in box 3, and mortgage interest relief generally ends. Self employed people who move their business abroad can also face a final settlement on hidden reserves.

Dutch inheritance and gift tax follows Dutch nationals for ten years. If you are Dutch and die or make a gift within ten years of emigrating, you are treated as still living in the Netherlands for those taxes. For people who are not Dutch nationals, the rule covers gifts made within one year of leaving.

Pensions and social security

The AOW builds up at 2% for each year you are insured, which normally means living or working in the Netherlands, during the 50 years before your AOW age. Each year abroad without insurance takes 2% off your future AOW.

You can avoid that gap by insuring voluntarily with the SVB for up to ten years, if you apply before leaving or within one year. The premium is a percentage of your income, with a minimum and a maximum. The AOW is paid abroad, but in a country without an agreement with the Netherlands to verify benefits, a single pensioner receives only the lower rate for couples.

Occupational pensions are paid abroad and fall under the conserving assessment described above. Your Dutch basic health insurance ends when you deregister, so private international cover needs to be arranged before you go.

Dual citizenship

This is the point to read carefully. Under the Dutch Nationality Act (Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap), you lose Dutch nationality automatically if you voluntarily acquire another nationality. There are three exceptions: you were born in that country and live there when you acquire it; you lived there for at least five consecutive years before turning 18; or you are married to, or in a registered partnership with, a national of that country.

Citizenship by investment fits none of these exceptions. For most Dutch people it would mean giving up Dutch nationality, and with it EU citizenship, so it is usually not suitable. The same applies to naturalising later in a country where you live, such as Paraguay after permanent residency, unless an exception applies, such as marriage to a national.

If you already hold two nationalities, for example from birth, living outside the EU starts a 13 year clock. Renew your Dutch passport, or obtain a declaration of Dutch nationality, within 13 years of the last issue date, or you lose Dutch nationality.

Reform is on the table but is not law. A private member’s bill to allow dual nationality has been before the House of Representatives since 2016, and the coalition agreement of the government formed in early 2026 commits to Dutch citizens abroad not losing their nationality more quickly than German, Belgian, French or British citizens. No change has been enacted, so plan on the current rules.