What changes financially when you move to Belgium?
Tick where your income comes from. You then see which rules Belgium 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.
Which country may tax
Which part of your income may your new country of residence tax?
The 90% rule can save your mortgage interest relief
If at least 90% of your income remains taxed in the Netherlands, then as a resident of Belgium you keep the same deductions and tax credits as someone living in the Netherlands. That includes mortgage interest relief for your own home in Belgium.
This is called qualifying non-resident taxpayer status. A tax credit is an amount that comes off your tax. The typical cross-border worker qualifies: someone who lives in Belgium and keeps working in the Netherlands. They do need an annual income statement from the Belgian tax authorities for this. Partners can qualify together and file together. If you go to work in Belgium, you lose the Dutch deductions instead. That too belongs in the net calculation.
- requirement
- at least 90% of income taxed in the Netherlands
Do not count on the new treaty of 2023
The treaty that the Netherlands and Belgium signed in 2023 is not yet in force. Until that day the treaty of 2001 applies in full.
"From next year everything changes" has been doing the rounds for years, and it has been wrong for years. Ratification, the formal approval of the treaty, is still under way. Application comes at the earliest from 2027. Anyone waiting for the new treaty for a better pension regime is, moreover, waiting for nothing. The pension article remains substantively the same, including the threshold that does not rise with prices.
Where this comes from: Ratification status as of mid-2026 from the knowledge article; the signed treaty itself is in Trb. 2023, 77, but no official page gives a date of entry into force — that is precisely the point.
Read the whole storyFor every cross-border question there is a free helpdesk
Team GWO is a free helpdesk run jointly by the Dutch and Belgian tax authorities. Call them before you sign anything you cannot undo.
Cross-border work, pensions, your own home: anyone dealing with two systems gets questions that neither tax authority can answer alone. This helpdesk exists for that. A phone call is cheaper than any repair afterwards.
Where this comes from: Practical advice from the knowledge article; the helpdesk is a joint arrangement without a regulatory page of its own to refer to.
Read the whole storyHealth insurance
How do you get insured, and what do you pay for it?
Have your GP open a global medical file
With a global medical file (globaal medisch dossier) you pay much less co-payment at the GP. And opening it costs you nothing.
In Belgium you first pay the doctor yourself. Part of that stays at your own expense: the remgeld (co-payment). The file is the main way to lower it. You simply ask for it during a consultation, and the doctor arranges it with your health insurance fund. The reduction applies as long as you visit at least once every two years.
- own share of a GP consultation with a file
- up to € 4
Source: The global medical file — lower personal share at the GP, free of charge for the patient — checked on 2026-08-28
Read the whole storyIn Flanders a separate care premium comes on top
If you live in the Flemish Region and are older than 25, you pay an annual care premium to a care fund (zorgkas). It is a separate bill alongside the health insurance fund. Anyone who lets it lie gets a fine.
If you newly come to live in Flanders, you pay within six months of the move. Anyone who fails to pay twice receives a fine of € 250. In Brussels and Wallonia this premium does not exist. It is one of the few costs that depend on the region where you go to live.
- premium per year
- € 100 (reduced to € 35 with increased reimbursement)
- joining after the move
- within 6 months
- fine after two missed payments
- € 250
Source: The care premium for Flemish social protection — amount, age, deadline for newcomers and the fine — checked on 2026-08-28
Read the whole storyAlmost every Belgian has hospitalisation insurance
No law requires it, but almost every Belgian has hospitalisation insurance. It covers the room and fee supplements, which can mount up considerably on admission.
Supplements are what a hospital or doctor charges on top of the standard rate. Through the health insurance fund this insurance is cheapest, through the employer often free. Ask about it in your employment terms. A budget that counts only the health insurance fund misses an item every Belgian simply pays. The same goes for family liability insurance: the standard liability policy of a few tens of euros a year.
Where this comes from: Description from the knowledge article, which relies on the FSMA's Wikifin explanation. Premiums differ by policy and age, so no amount is given here.
Read the whole storyWhat the Netherlands doesn't let go of
Which Dutch obligation travels with you?
Your AOW accrual stops on departure, repair is possible 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. With voluntary insurance with the SVB (the Social Insurance Bank, which pays the AOW) you close the gap, for ten years at most. Two conditions apply. Your application is in within one year of your compulsory insurance ending. And you were insured for at least a year directly before that. The premium depends on your income and is revised annually. 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 storyWhether your basic insurance stops depends on where you work
If you live in Belgium but keep working in the Netherlands, you keep your Dutch health insurance and your healthcare allowance. If you go to work in Belgium, you lose them. If you move on retirement, your Dutch health insurance stops, but the healthcare allowance can continue through the CAK.
Where you are insured depends not on where you live, but on where you work. With Belgium that distinction is missed most often. If your Dutch insurance stops, the health insurance fund or the CAK route takes its place. Arrange that before the switch, not after.
Where this comes from: The three scenarios from the knowledge article on healthcare for Dutch-Belgians; which scenario applies is determined by EU coordination on the basis of your country of work.
Read the whole storyFor inheritance and gifts the Netherlands counts you in for ten more years
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. That applies on death and to gifts.
If you die within ten years of leaving, your heirs pay Dutch inheritance tax, as if you still lived here. What you give away in those years, to your children for example, falls under Dutch gift tax. So review your will and your gift plans before you leave. For a gift in the first year after you leave, this even applies to everyone who lived in the Netherlands, also without Dutch nationality.
- deemed residence
- 10 years
This is not tax advice
These are the rules that apply to your situation, not what they add up to for you. With Belgium almost everything hinges on one question with three conditions: is your pension taxed above or below the € 25,000 threshold, and how exactly does Belgium tax it? The answer differs per pension and per municipality. Working that out is the job of a tax adviser who knows both systems. Take this list to that conversation. Then you 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 Belgium: 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 Belgium 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.