What changes financially when you move to Costa Rica?

Tick where your income comes from. You then see which rules Costa Rica 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.

Everything about AOW, pension and tax in Costa Rica →

Where does your income come from?

You can tick more than one. A pension from several sources is the rule rather than the exception.

AOW (Dutch state pension)You receive AOW, or will start receiving it during your move.Occupational pensionPension built up with an employer outside government.Government service pensionABP years as a civil servant, state-school teacher, police or defence.Salary from work thereYou will be employed in the country itself.Self-employed work thereYou will work there as a freelancer or business owner.Rent, dividend or interestIncome from assets held outside your new country of residence.Annuity or substantial interestAn annuity policy, or 5% or more of the shares in a Dutch bv.

This applies to everyone who moves. Tick above what applies to you, and the rest will appear.

What the Netherlands doesn't let go of

Which Dutch obligation travels with you?

Your AOW accrual stops on departure: you can repair it within one year

This is about the accrual of your AOW, 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. If you keep working in the Netherlands, or are posted abroad, you can stay insured. With voluntary insurance with the SVB, the body that runs the AOW, you close the gap, for ten years at most. That is only possible if your application is in within one year of your compulsory insurance ending. You must also have been insured for at least a year directly before that. The premium depends on your income and is revised annually, so 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

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Note

Your Dutch basic insurance ends on deregistration

Your basic insurance stops on the day you deregister. Your new policy only starts once you've been accepted, and the Caja only comes after your residence card.

With Costa Rica the gap is therefore double. In the months you wait for the DGME, the immigration service, you don't have the Caja yet. So your own policy has to run from the first day. If you postpone the insurance question until after the move, you may have become too old for the policy your plan rested on. So arrange your cover first, and only then take steps you can't reverse.

Where this comes from: The order from the healthcare article — own policy before departure, Caja after the card — and the fixed emigration rule that the Zvw ends on deregistration.

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For 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

Source: Inheritance Tax Act 1956 (Successiewet), Article 3(1) and (2) — the deemed residence of ten years, and of one year for gifts — checked on 2026-10-18

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This is not tax advice

These are the rules that apply to your situation, not the outcome of them. With Costa Rica the sum is the reverse of what the brochure says. There is no tax treaty. So the Netherlands keeps taxing your AOW (the Dutch state pension), your pension and your annuity, without exemption and usually without tax credits. Costa Rica, on the other hand, doesn't tax your Dutch income. Besides that, two things play a part that have nothing to do with tax but do decide your monthly income. Outside a treaty country, the AOW of a single person falls back to the amount for married people. And as a resident you compulsorily pay a percentage of your declared income to the Caja, Costa Rica's social insurance, on top of your own policy. 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.

Start your step-by-step plan for Costa Rica See the destination

Every step on one list, free

Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for Costa Rica: 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 Costa Rica 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.