Leaving from Belgium?To the Belgian plan →See the plan for Belgians moving to Denmark →This plan is for people leaving the Netherlands.
Denmark · No visa required
Emigrating to Denmark
For Denmark you apply for no visa and no permit. You only register a right you already have, and all that paperwork costs zero kroner. The surprises are in the deposit, the car and a welfare state that works just differently from ours. This page shows how the journey runs and what you need to work out up front.
€ 199 one-off · 37 steps · no subscription
- Kind of journey
- Free movement: register, no application
- Lead time
- About 4 to 5 months. The home sets the pace
- Note
- The car: up to 150% tax, no relocation exemption
Last updated: 14 October 2026
Will your departure date work? Check it in the free step-by-step plan →
Five phases, from the car sum to the yellow card
The order is fixed: first a home, then the residence document, then the CPR number (the Danish citizen service number). That number opens everything else, and beyond that there's little to fear. You do the two sums that can hurt in phase 1, at home at the kitchen table.
- Orientation
First two sums: the car and the home
In this phase you do the two sums that decide how expensive Denmark becomes for you. As an EU citizen you register a right you already have: the residence document is free and for employees ready immediately. Then the car sum: up to 150% registration tax on the Danish market value, with no relocation exemption. So selling in the Netherlands usually wins. And the housing sum: landlords may ask three months' deposit plus three months' rent in advance. That's up to six months' rent before you get the key.Read more
- Closing the Netherlands
The familiar list, without the windfalls
In this phase you work through the familiar list: healthcare, AOW (the Dutch state pension), benefits, deregistration, documents. The EU routes work as you hope. But honestly, the windfalls of other destinations are missing here. The Netherlands keeps taxing your pension as source state (the country your pension comes from). The health contribution via the CAK is at exactly the Dutch level for Denmark. New is one deadline almost nobody knows. If you take up employment, you have eight weeks after the end of your Dutch insurance to join an a-kasse (a Danish unemployment fund). Otherwise your Dutch insurance years don't count.Read more
- The move
One day's drive, no customs
In this phase you move your household contents, car and pet. Within the EU there's no declaration for removal goods. From the Randstad to Copenhagen is one long day's drive, with the ferry or over the Great Belt bridge. With the car you do what you decided in phase 1: sell it or export it. On export you get BPM back (Dutch car tax), but a thirteen-week deadline comes with it. The pet travels on the EU passport. For dogs, two Danish rules apply. There are thirteen banned breeds, and for a crossbreed you have to prove it is not a banned breed (reversed burden of proof). And your dog must be registered within four weeks and have compulsory liability insurance.Read more
- Registration in Denmark
Home → document → CPR → everything
In this phase you arrange your CPR number and everything that hangs on it. The order is fixed: no CPR number without a home address, and without a CPR number you don't exist administratively. After that it goes fast and costs nothing. You get the EU residence document from SIRI (the Danish immigration service). You do the CPR registration at the Citizen Service, the whole family, in person. Then come MitID (the Danish DigiD) and Digital Post, the digital mailbox that is compulsory by law. The yellow health card comes by itself. You can apply for the tax card up to a month before your first working day. Do it as soon as your contract is signed. Forget it, and your employer withholds the emergency rate, 8% plus 55%. Then more than half of your first salary goes to the tax office.Read more
- Arrival
Thirty days for the car, eight weeks for the a-kasse
In this phase you settle in, start work and get to know the system. The car has thirty days to be on Danish plates. Unemployment insurance is voluntary, so joining an a-kasse is your action, not your employer's. The municipality guarantees childcare within three months. School is free, and so are Danish lessons, for three and a half years. Know where your own money goes, too. The dentist is largely uninsured there. Medicines run via a staircase system: you pay the first good thousand kroner yourself.Read more
This is what one step of your plan looks like
This is the real thing: one of the steps of the Denmark journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan, with the deadlines, the offices and the sources.
Step 1.2 of your plan
Do the car sum before you decide anything else
- Lead time
- an evening of calculating
- Costs
- none
In this step you work out what it costs to take your car to Denmark. That sum decides whether it comes along or whether you sell it here.
On import of your own car Denmark levies the full registreringsafgift: the Danish registration tax. It is calculated over the Danish market value of the car, in brackets:
- 25% over the first bracket.
- 85% over the second bracket.
- 150% over everything above that.
- On top of that, a CO2 surcharge per gram.
There is no exemption for removal goods, not for EU immigrants either. For an ordinary Dutch family car that runs into thousands to tens of thousands of euros.
Against that stands one thing: on export the Netherlands refunds the remaining BPM. That's the part of the Dutch car tax (BPM) still in your car's value. That refund almost never covers the Danish levy. You only get it if the car is actually registered in Denmark. If you sell it here, there is no refund. So compare what it fetches here with the refund minus the Danish tax.
So do this sum now, with your own number plate. For most households the outcome is: sell the car here, and buy (or lease) one there.
If you drive electric, the sum turns out milder. Zero-emission cars pay only 40% of the calculated tax in 2026, and get a hefty extra deduction.
And this is the dashboard that step lives in. The example shows the plan for Spain; your dashboard shows the plan for Denmark.
This is step 1.2 of 39. The other 38 are ready for you, each with the same sources, the same offices and a schedule that keeps track of your dates.
See all 39 steps for DenmarkWhat you get for € 199
All 39 steps to Denmark, for your situation
In order, with the office and the official source at every step. Steps that don't apply to you don't appear.
Your deadlines in one place
For each step you see the latest date to start, and you get a heads-up before something is due or expires. Your documents sit in the vault, with their dates.
A plan that stays right
Twice a month we check the sources. If something changes, it's in your plan and you get a message.
The step-by-step plan for Denmark
€ 199
one-off · 39 steps
- Pay once, no subscription
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Every step on one list, free
Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for Denmark: 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 Denmark 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.
That was the move. And once you live there?
Which country may tax your pension once you live in Denmark? Is there a favourable regime, a scheme that lowers your tax? And how do you get insured? That depends on where your income comes from. Tick it and you'll see which rules apply to you, with the source.
See the financial conditionsClosing down the Netherlands: all your letters in one go
Moving to Denmark starts with leaving the Netherlands properly. That's why the plan includes the letter tool: you enter your details once and every cancellation and notification letter is ready.
Just the letters, without the plan? That works too, for € 49
- Health insurance, rent, energy, subscriptions, GP, school, bank and pension fund: 16 kinds of letters. You enter your details only once.
- A sending list that counts back from your departure date and your notice period, even when that's three months.
- Also what you need to ask for as an emigrant: your no-claims years in English, your medical file and the school report (the report on your child for the new school).
Auke, maker of Vertrekklaar
On 2 January we're leaving ourselves, on a trip around the world with our family. What I put here, I'm arranging for my own family too.
On 20 September 2026 a customer wrote that the CAK rule for early retirement was missing from his plan. He was right. That evening the step was in thirteen plans, with the source attached.
The knowledge base on Denmark
Per phase, the articles that are already there. They're written from the same journey and go deeper than what fits above.
- Your car to Denmark: the tax that changes everythingOn import Denmark levies the full registration tax on the Danish market value of your car: 25, 85 and 150 per cent per bracket, plus a CO₂ surcharge. Those who move pay too; a milder scheme exists only for those who are there temporarily. Against that stands the Dutch BPM refund. This is how you do the sum, with the thirty days that start running straight away.
- Your pet to Denmark: thirteen banned breeds and four weeks for the registerDogs, cats and ferrets travel from the Netherlands to Denmark on a chip, an EU pet passport and a rabies vaccination, without a tapeworm treatment. What Denmark adds comes after the border: thirteen dog breeds and their crossbreeds are banned, without exception, and every dog must be in the Danish dog register and insured within four weeks.
- Your household goods to Denmark: no declaration, but limits on drink, medicines and fireworksFrom the Netherlands to Denmark you move without a customs declaration, VAT or import duty on your belongings. What does have rules: alcohol and tobacco, with guide quantities for personal use; medicines, some of which you may only bring for thirty days; and a short list of what is not allowed at all or only with a permit, from fireworks to weapons.
- CPR, MitID and Digital Post: the order that opens everythingIn Denmark everything hangs on one number. The CPR number opens healthcare, the bank, tax and school, but the number itself waits for a residential address and for the EU residence document from SIRI. This is how the chain works, what you show per ground of residence, and which duty comes with it that the Netherlands does not know.
- Denmark's researcher tax scheme: 32.84 per cent tax, for seven years, and one chanceDenmark has a special tax scheme for researchers and highly paid employees: 27 per cent plus the labour market contribution, together 32.84 per cent, without deductions, for at most seven years. The conditions are strict: a guaranteed monthly salary of at least 65,400 kroner in 2026, ten years without Danish tax liability beforehand, and a registration that must be right from the first working day.
- Renting in Denmark: three months' deposit, three months in advanceThe Danish tenancy law lets a landlord ask three months' rent as a deposit and another three months' rent in advance. What you have in return: an inspection report when you move in, two weeks to report defects, a rent tribunal that decides on the deposit, and housing benefit that is backdated if you apply within thirty days.
All 14 articles about Denmark
- Your first weeks in Denmark: the order, the money and the pitfalls
- Banking and paying in Denmark: your NemKonto may be your Dutch account
- Tax in Denmark: high, but predictable
- Buying a house in Denmark: there is a cooling-off period — but it costs 1 per cent
- Driving licence in Denmark: nothing is required, and the 180 days don't apply to you
- School and childcare in Denmark: free folkeskole, and child benefit you build up
- Working in Denmark: the a-kasse and the system without a minimum wage
- Healthcare in Denmark: free GP, expensive dentist
Also applies to your move
Ready to begin?
The step-by-step plan for Denmark: 39 steps, with your documents and your costs in one place. For each step you see the latest date to start. You pay once and it's yours.