Leaving Netherlands: the questions people actually ask

Yes. Under an agreed review engagement, our team reviews your residency file and supporting package, provides a written advisory opinion and recommends revisions. That is our opinion — not a Belastingdienst determination or standpunt.

No. The Netherlands has no departure form and no residency-opinion request. Emigration is declared through BRP deregistration and the M-form for the year you leave. If you want certainty from the Belastingdienst on a specific question you can request vooroverleg, which requires you to set out the facts and your own position. Belastingdienst: vooroverleg ↗

Not on ordinary savings and listed shares in box 3. But if you hold at least 5% of a company you are deemed to have sold it on departure and receive a conserverende aanslag in box 2, and the same protective assessment applies to pension rights, lijfrente and a kapitaalverzekering eigen woning. It is deferred — automatically within the EU/EEA, on request with possible security elsewhere — and for pensions and annuities it can be waived after 10 years. For shares it is open-ended and is collected when you sell, receive dividends or liquidate. Belastingdienst guidance ↗

Ceasing residency is a fictieve vervreemding of your aanmerkelijk belang under art. 4.16(1)(h) Wet IB 2001: the gain is assessed as te conserveren inkomen and payment is deferred. The Belastingdienst has confirmed it can withdraw the deferral and collect when the BV later pays a dividend, even where a treaty limits dividend tax, because the assessment taxes the gain built up while you were resident. Get the share value on the departure date supported before you leave. Kennisgroep position KG:207:2025:1 ↗

Your workplace pension and any lijfrente stay where they are, but the deducted contributions trigger a conserverende aanslag that becomes payable if you cash in or surrender within 10 years; after 10 years you can ask for it to be waived. AOW accrues at 2% for each insured year in the 50 years before your AOW age, and accrual stops while you live abroad unless you take out voluntary insurance with the SVB. SVB: AOW accrual ↗

Yes on both. If you will be outside the Netherlands more than 8 months in a year you must deregister from the BRP — from 5 days before departure up to the day you leave — or risk a fine; your record moves to the RNI. Your Dutch zorgverzekering ends on the moving date, and only pensioners and benefit recipients moving to a treaty country can keep cover through the CAK, which suggests starting 3 months ahead. When to deregister ↗

A bank account is not; it is one circumstance among many. A house is different. Dutch real estate is always taxable in the Netherlands: a home you keep or let stays in box 3 on the 1 January reference date and you file the non-resident C-form each year, with only the heffingsvrij vermogen as relief. A home that remains available to you is also the heaviest fact against your emigration. Note that the Wet werkelijk rendement box 3 — a switch to taxing actual returns from 1 January 2028 — passed the Tweede Kamer on 12 February 2026 but the Eerste Kamer postponed its vote on 30 June 2026 pending amending legislation. As at September 2026 it is not law. Non-resident Dutch income ↗

The expatregeling only applies while you are employed by a Dutch employer, runs for a maximum of 5 years, stays at 30% in 2025 and 2026 and drops to 27% from 2027. The partial non-resident (partiële buitenlandse belastingplicht) election was abolished from 1 January 2025, with transitional use through 2026 only for those already on the ruling before 2024. If you return within one year of leaving without having lived in another state, art. 2.2 Wet IB 2001 treats you as never having left. Belastingdienst: partial non-resident status ↗