What changes financially when you move to Bermuda?
Tick where your income comes from. You then see which rules Bermuda 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?
No CAK route: your Dutch healthcare stops
Bermuda 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. The United Kingdom is on the list, but Bermuda doesn't fall under it. So you insure yourself in Bermuda.
Source: CAK — the treaty countries of the scheme abroad; Bermuda isn't on it — checked on 2026-10-26
Read the whole storyThe basic cover doesn't apply in a hospital outside Bermuda
The Standard Health Benefit doesn't cover treatment in a hospital outside Bermuda.
Bermuda has one hospital for acute care, the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital. Whoever has to go to the United States, Canada or the United Kingdom for treatment needs additional cover for that. Ask your employer or insurer whether it's included, and up to what amount.
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 a Bermudian or international policy.
So arrange your policy before you deregister, and have it start on the day you leave. If you work in Bermuda, ask your employer from which day you and your family are insured.
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. Your Bermudian contribution 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 Bermuda
If a surviving dependant doesn't live in the Netherlands on the day of the death, there's no right to an Anw benefit. A running Anw stops on the first day you live outside the Netherlands.
The exception only applies to countries where a treaty allows it, and there is none with Bermuda. Whether voluntary Anw insurance still brings anything if your partner lives in Bermuda, ask the SVB. Also arrange your partner's security with a term life insurance or a survivor's pension.
- article
- article 32a and 32b of the Anw
Your WW stops if you go to Bermuda
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 Bermuda on a WW benefit. As a visitor you may not look for work there either: the employer applies for your permit while you're still in the Netherlands.
- 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.
If you die within ten years of leaving, your heirs pay Dutch inheritance tax, as if you still lived here. On what you own in Bermuda, Bermuda also levies estate duty. There's no inheritance tax treaty with Bermuda. 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 does have a tax treaty with Bermuda, but no social security treaty. The 2009 tax treaty gives your AOW only to Bermuda, and Bermuda levies no income tax: so your AOW is untaxed. Your company pension and annuity also go to Bermuda. Above 10,000 euros gross a year together, and only if the premiums were deductible, the Netherlands may tax; whether that covers the whole amount, check. 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, and no retirement visa: living there without work is only possible with an income of at least 75,000 dollars a year. 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 Bermuda: 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 Bermuda 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.