What changes financially when you move to Albania?
Tick where your income comes from. You then see which rules Albania and the Netherlands apply to your situation: which country may tax you, which schemes exist and how you get insured. With the source, so you can check it yourself.
This applies to everyone who moves. Tick above what applies to you, and the rest will appear.
Special regimes
Is there a favourable regime, and do you qualify?
VAT is 20 percent
Albania levies VAT (TVSH) on goods and services. The standard rate is 20 percent; for accommodation in a registered establishment it's 6 percent.
VAT also matters for your car: if it doesn't fall under the removal exemption, you pay VAT on the customs value.
- standard rate
- 20%
Health insurance
How do you get insured, and what do you pay for it?
No CAK route: your Dutch healthcare stops
Albania isn't on the CAK's list of treaty countries. Your basic insurance ends on emigration, also with an AOW or pension.
The CAK route is the scheme under which you're insured in a treaty country with a Dutch AOW or pension, through a contribution to the CAK. Albania isn't an EU country and has no healthcare agreement with the Netherlands. The CAK then says: take out insurance yourself in your country of residence, for yourself and your family.
Source: CAK — the treaty countries of the foreign scheme; Albania isn't on it — checked on 2026-10-26
Read the whole storyYour Dutch basic insurance ends on deregistration
Your basic insurance stops on the day you deregister. From that day you're only covered with an Albanian or international policy.
The FSDKSH only covers you after the waiting period, or when your employer registers you. Arrange a private policy covering the time in between, and have it start on the day you leave. You also need that policy for your registration on your own means.
Where this comes from: The order from the healthcare article, your own policy before departure, and the standard emigration rule that the Zvw ends on deregistration.
Read the whole storyWhat the Netherlands doesn't let go of
Which Dutch obligation travels with you?
Your AOW build-up stops on departure, repairing it is possible within one year
This is about building up your AOW, not about the payment. What you've built up until your departure stays. But as soon as you're no longer insured in the Netherlands, you build up nothing more. Every year until your AOW age then costs 2% of your later AOW.
With voluntary insurance with the SVB you close the gap. That's only possible if your application is in within one year after the end of your compulsory insurance, and for at most ten years. Your Albanian years don't count: there's no treaty.
- reduction per uninsured year
- 2% of your AOW
- applying for voluntary insurance
- at the latest 1 year after the end of your insurance
An Anw benefit doesn't go along to Albania
If a surviving dependant doesn't live in the Netherlands on the day of death, there's no right to an Anw benefit, unless a treaty allows it. There's no treaty with Albania, and a running Anw stops on departure.
According to the law that also applies if the deceased was voluntarily insured. Ask the SVB before you leave whether voluntary Anw insurance still gets you anything. Also arrange support for your partner with a term life insurance or a survivor's pension.
- article
- article 32a and 32b of the Anw
Your WW stops when you go to Albania
Whoever lives or stays outside the Netherlands, other than on holiday, has no right to WW.
So don't go looking for work in Albania on a WW benefit. Look for your job from the Netherlands, and leave once the contract is there.
- article
- article 19 paragraph 1 under e of the WW
For inheritance and gifts the Netherlands keeps counting you in for ten years
The Successiewet, the law on inheritance and gift tax, acts as if an emigrated Dutch national still lives in the Netherlands for ten years. That applies on death and on a gift (article 3).
If you die within ten years of leaving, your heirs pay Dutch inheritance tax, as if you still lived here. There's no treaty on inheritance and gifts. Albania taxes whoever lives there and receives something at 15 percent, except within close family; so the same inheritance or gift can be taxed in both countries. Review your will and your gift plans before you leave.
- residence fiction
- 10 years
This is not tax advice
These are the rules that apply to your situation, not what they add up to. The Netherlands has a tax treaty with Albania from 2004, but no social security treaty. The treaty gives your AOW, your company pension and your annuity to Albania as your country of residence. If Albania doesn't tax your pension, or taxes less than 90 percent of it, and you receive more than 20,000 euros a year in total, the Netherlands may tax your pension after all. Whether Albania taxes a Dutch pension isn't certain at the moment. A government pension stays taxed in the Netherlands. Without a social security treaty a single person gets the AOW for married people, about 30 percent less. No CAK. Take this list to a tax adviser who knows both countries.
Still deciding between countries? Put the rules of two or three countries side by side
Then actually doing it
Knowing which rules apply is the first half. The second is applying them in time: in the right order, without missing a deadline, and with your documents at hand.
Every step on one list, free
Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for Albania: every step in order, to print and tick off. With it, five mails in a week and a half about the pitfalls and the real costs. If the rules for Albania change, you'll hear about it. After that we ask once where your plans stand, send one offer, and now and then one thing that fits your moment. No newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.