What changes financially when you move to Canada?
Tick where your income comes from. You then see which rules Canada 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?
Your province arranges healthcare, and there is no CAK route
Your Dutch basic health insurance ends on emigration, and Canada has no S1 route. You fall under your province's health insurance, with its own rules on who is covered when.
With an S1 route you stay insured in the Netherlands through the CAK while living abroad. So that does not exist for Canada. Arrange the provincial health card in your first weeks. Check whether your province has a waiting period, and bridge any gap with temporary insurance. Dentistry and physiotherapy remain largely outside the provincial insurance afterwards too. A supplementary policy through your employer is common.
Where this comes from: Provincial health registration from the knowledge article on the first weeks in Canada.
Read the whole storyWhat the Netherlands doesn't let go of
Which Dutch obligation travels with you?
Your AOW accrual stops, and you apply for voluntary insurance within a year
Every year outside the Netherlands costs you a fixed part of your later AOW. Voluntary insurance can close that gap, but you must apply for it within one year of the end of the compulsory insurance (usually the day you leave).
Put that date in your diary before you go. Weigh the premium against what you build up in Canada yourself. Thanks to the treaty your Dutch years already count there anyway.
Where this comes from: The one-year deadline and the trade-off from the knowledge article on AOW, pension and tax in Canada.
Read the whole storyChild benefit and allowances stop on departure
Your Dutch child benefit, healthcare allowance and housing allowance stop when you emigrate to Canada. For child benefit, the quarter in which you leave is the last one.
Factor that into the family budget before you go. Set the cancellation in motion yourself. That way you avoid having to pay money back later.
Where this comes from: The cancellation list from the knowledge article on stopping allowances on emigration.
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 the outcome of them. Canada is a treaty country, and that saves money straight away. But the treaty lets the Netherlands keep 15%, the deductions that emigrants within the EU keep do not apply here, and the valuation of your assets on your day of arrival is worth thousands of euros. What the rules together mean for you is for a tax adviser who knows both systems to work out. 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 Canada: 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 Canada 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.