What changes financially when you move to Curaçao?

Tick where your income comes from. You then see which rules Curaçao 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 Curaçao →

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, repairing it is possible within one year

As soon as you're no longer insured in the Netherlands, you build up no more AOW. Every year until your AOW age then costs 2% of your later AOW. What you've built up until you leave stays yours. So this is about the accrual, not the payment. If you already receive AOW, this no longer applies.

For most emigrants the insurance ends on the day of departure. If you keep working in the Netherlands, or your employer posts you abroad, you can stay insured. You close the gap with voluntary insurance with the SVB, 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 every year, so no amount is given here. Put the deadline for your application 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 health insurance ends on deregistration

Your basic health insurance stops on the day you deregister. Curaçao health insurance only begins once you are registered with Kranshi and have your sédula.

The order is fixed. Without the declaration by operation of law no registration with Kranshi, the civil registry. Without registration no sédula, the Curaçao identity card. And without a sédula no health insurance. Bridge the gap with insurance you arrange before departure. Also ask your Dutch municipality for proof of deregistration, because Kranshi wants to see it.

Where this comes from: The registration chain from the knowledge article on Kranshi and the sédula; health insurance depends on the sédula and that on the registration.

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For inheritance and gifts the Netherlands counts you in for five 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. Towards Curaçao the Tax Arrangement Netherlands Curaçao (BRNC) shortens that period to five years, for death and for gifts. Curaçao levies a succession tax of its own as well.

If you die within five 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. A gift in the first year after you leave also counts for anyone who lived in the Netherlands without Dutch nationality. After those five years the Netherlands no longer taxes gifts and estates of residents of Curaçao.

deemed residence: 5 years instead of 10

Source: BRNC, Article 28 — the shortened deemed residence for inheritance and gift tax — 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 Curaçao more is at stake than with the EU destinations. Whether or not you qualify for the penshonado scheme makes a difference that runs into thousands of euros a year. And two deadlines start running straight after you arrive. What the rules mean for you together is for a tax adviser to work out, one who knows the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. 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.

Start your step-by-step plan for Curaçao See the destination

Every step on one list, free

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