What changes financially when you move to Andorra?
Tick where your income comes from. You then see which rules Andorra 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 called IGI and is 4.5 percent
Andorra levies the impost general indirecte (IGI) on goods and services. The general rate is 4.5 percent.
That's one of the reasons groceries, electronics and fuel are cheaper there than in the Netherlands. If you take goods back to the EU, the travellers' allowances of customs apply; above those you pay VAT after all in France or Spain.
- general rate
- 4.5%
Health insurance
How do you get insured, and what do you pay for it?
No CAK route: your Dutch healthcare stops
Andorra isn't on the CAK's list of treaty countries. Your basic insurance ends when you emigrate, also with an AOW or pension.
The CAK route is the scheme through which you're insured with a Dutch AOW or pension in a treaty country, through a contribution to the CAK. Andorra isn't an EU country and has no healthcare agreement with the Netherlands. So you insure yourself in Andorra: through the CASS if you work, otherwise with a private policy.
Source: CAK — the treaty countries of the scheme abroad; Andorra isn't on it — checked on 2026-10-26
Read the whole storyThe CASS reimburses 75 percent of a consultation and 90 percent of a hospital stay
Whoever is insured with the CASS chooses a regular GP (metge referent). Through that doctor the CASS reimburses 75 percent of a consultation, test or medicine and 90 percent of a hospital stay.
Outside that route it's 33 percent. Andorra has one hospital, the Hospital Nostra Senyora de Meritxell in Escaldes-Engordany. For what can't be done there, your doctor refers you, with the CASS's consent, to a hospital in Catalonia or Toulouse. The rest you insure on top with a supplementary policy, or you pay it yourself.
- consultation, test, medicine
- 75%
- hospital stay
- 90%
- outside your regular doctor
- 33%
Your Dutch basic insurance ends when you deregister
Your basic insurance stops on the day you deregister. From that day you're only covered with the CASS, an Andorran policy or an international policy.
The CASS only starts once your employer registers you, or once your own business is running. Arrange a policy that covers the days in between, and have it start on the day you leave. Whoever comes as a passive resident has the private policy start before deregistering.
Where this comes from: The order from the healthcare article — your own policy before you leave — 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, repair is possible within one year
This is about building up your AOW, not about the payment. What you built up until you left stays. But as soon as you're no longer insured in the Netherlands, you build up nothing more. Each 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 of the end of your compulsory insurance, and for at most ten years. Your Andorran CASS years don't count: there's no treaty.
- reduction per uninsured year
- 2% of your AOW
- application for voluntary insurance
- at the latest 1 year after the end of your insurance
An Anw benefit doesn't go along to Andorra
If a surviving dependant doesn't live in the Netherlands, there's no right to an Anw benefit, unless a treaty allows it. There's no treaty with Andorra: a running Anw doesn't go along.
The tax treaty does name the Anw as income the Netherlands may tax, but that says nothing about the right to the benefit itself. Ask the SVB before you leave what happens to a running Anw, and whether voluntary Anw insurance still brings you anything. Also arrange your partner's security with a term life insurance or a survivor's pension.
- article
- article 32a and 32b of the Anw
Source: Surviving Dependants Act, article 32a (no right if the dependant doesn't live in the Netherlands, unless a treaty) and article 32b (a running benefit stops) — not yet checked against the source
Read the whole storyYour WW stops if you go to Andorra
Whoever lives or stays outside the Netherlands, other than for a holiday, has no right to WW.
So don't go looking for work in Andorra on a WW benefit. As a tourist you may not work there either: your employer submits the application while you're still in the Netherlands, or within your 90 days.
- article
- article 19 paragraph 1 under e of the WW
For inheritance and gifts the Netherlands counts you in for another ten years
The Successiewet, the law on inheritance and gift tax, treats an emigrated Dutch national as living in the Netherlands for another 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. Andorra levies nothing, so you don't pay twice, but the Dutch tax remains. Check 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 had a tax treaty with Andorra since 2025, but no social security treaty. The treaty lets the Netherlands tax your AOW, your company pension and your annuity, without a threshold; as your country of residence Andorra levies its own tax on them and deducts the Dutch tax. A government pension also 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, and no retirement route: living there without work is only possible with an investment of a million euros. 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 Andorra: 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 Andorra 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.