What changes financially when you move to Aruba?
Tick where your income comes from. You then see which rules Aruba 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.
Health insurance
How do you get insured, and what do you pay for it?
Register with the AZV within thirty days
Every resident with a valid permit is insured through the AZV, the Aruban health insurance. If you register within thirty days of your registration with Censo, the cover applies retroactively from that registration.
Censo is the Aruban population register. If you register later, you are covered only from the date of your application. You pay healthcare costs from before then yourself. Mind the link with your permit too. Your AZV registration ends on the end date of your permit. So the annual renewal is also a deadline for your healthcare.
- registration period
- within 30 days of the Censo registration
What the Netherlands doesn't let go of
Which Dutch obligation travels with you?
Your AOW accrual stops on departure; you can top it up within one year
This is about the accrual, not the payment. What you've built up until you leave stays yours. 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. If you already receive AOW, this no longer applies.
For most emigrants the insurance ends at the moment of departure. Whoever keeps working in the Netherlands or is posted abroad can stay insured. You close the gap by insuring yourself voluntarily with the SVB (the agency that runs the AOW), for ten years at most. That is only possible if your application is in within one year of your compulsory insurance ending. And you must have been insured for at least a year directly before that. The premium depends on your income and is revised every year. That is why no amount is given here. Put that date in your diary before you go.
- reduction per uninsured year
- 2% of your AOW
- application for voluntary insurance
- no later than 1 year after your insurance ends
- duration of voluntary insurance
- 10 years at most
Source: Algemene Ouderdomswet (General Old Age Pensions Act) — article 13(1) (2% reduction per uninsured calendar year), article 35(1) (voluntary insurance, ten years at most) and article 36(1) (application no later than one year after the compulsory insurance ends) — checked on 2026-09-19
Read the whole storyYour Dutch basic health insurance ends on deregistration
Your Dutch basic insurance stops on the day you deregister. The AZV only begins once your permit and your registration with Censo are complete.
The order is fixed. First comes the decision from DIMAS (the Aruban admissions service), then the registration with Censo (the population register), then the AZV. The thirty-day period determines whether your cover is backdated. Bridge the gap with insurance you arrange before departure. Ask your Dutch municipality for proof of deregistration.
Where this comes from: The registration chain from the knowledge article on the first weeks on Aruba; AZV cover depends on Censo and the permit.
Read the whole storyFor inheritance and gifts the Netherlands counts you in; towards Aruba the BRK applies
The Inheritance Tax Act (Successiewet), the law on inheritance and gift tax, pretends an emigrated Dutch national still lives in the Netherlands for ten years, on death and for gifts. Towards Aruba the Tax Arrangement for the Kingdom (BRK) applies. It has no shorter period, as with Curaçao, but as a rule allocates an estate to the country where you live. Since 1 July 2018 Aruba itself no longer levies succession tax.
Whether the ten-year rule is set aside on death as a result depends on where your permanent home is. Have a tax adviser check that, especially if you also keep a home in the Netherlands. Under the BRK the Netherlands may tax real estate and a business in the Netherlands in any case. If you make a gift within twelve months of leaving, the Netherlands may still levy an additional amount of gift tax. So review your will and your gift plans before you leave.
- gift after leaving
- within 12 months still additionally taxed
- deemed residence on death
- have it checked: the BRK allocates to the country of residence
This is not tax advice
These are the rules that apply to your situation, not the outcome of them. Outside Europe, Aruba is the mildest destination for your old age. But admission is stricter there than on Curaçao. And the arrangement with the Netherlands dates from 1964; a successor is being negotiated. What the rules together mean for you is the work of a tax adviser who knows the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. Take this list to that conversation. Then you will know which questions to ask.
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 Aruba: 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 Aruba 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.