What changes financially when you move to Denmark?
Tick where your income comes from. You then see which rules Denmark 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 premium and no policy: healthcare is in the tax
If you are registered, you are covered. GP, specialist on referral and hospital are free, with no excess and no insurer.
Your proof of access is the yellow sundhedskort, the Danish health card. It lands on your doormat after your CPR registration. Cover already starts at registration, not when you receive the card. Your GP's name is on it. You choose that GP at CPR registration.
Source: Life in Denmark — the sundhedskort: registering, the GP and the free treatments — checked on 2026-08-28
Read the whole storyThe dentist and medicines you largely pay for yourself
The Danish system works differently from the Dutch one on three points. You largely pay for the dentist yourself. Medicines run through a tiered system. And for physiotherapy you only get a subsidy with a referral.
Under the tiered system, you get more subsidy the more you spend on medicines in a year. Budget the dentist and medicines in your monthly budget as if they were subscriptions. Also decide deliberately about the supplementary insurance Sygeforsikring danmark, which many Danes have for this. It is not compulsory, but it is worth considering, especially for the dentist.
Where this comes from: Description of the system from the knowledge article; the subsidy limits and tiers change periodically, so no amounts are given here.
Read the whole storyWhat the Netherlands doesn't let go of
Which Dutch obligation travels with you?
Your AOW accrual stops on departure, but can be repaired within one year
This is about the accrual, 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. Voluntary continued insurance with the SVB (the Social Insurance Bank, which pays the AOW) closes the gap, for ten years at most. That is only possible if your application is in within one year of your compulsory insurance ending. And you must 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
Read the whole storyYour Dutch basic health insurance ends when you deregister
Your basic insurance stops on the day you deregister. Not on 31 December, and not if you let it run on either.
The insurance belongs with living in the Netherlands, and that stops. What replaces it depends on your route. That is tax-funded Danish healthcare, once your CPR registration is complete. Or it is the CAK route with an S1 (the European form that arranges your right to healthcare in your country of residence), if you come with a pension. Mind the gap between deregistration and registration. You bridge it with insurance that you arrange before departure.
Where this comes from: Description from the knowledge article on Danish healthcare. There is no official page that states the end date of the basic insurance in so many words.
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. What they add up to is not shown here. With Denmark it comes down to this: the Netherlands keeps taxing your pension, and Denmark has your worldwide income in view, so all your income, wherever you earn it. How those two systems interlock, and what that means for the municipal tax on your total income, is bespoke work. A tax adviser who knows the treaty works that out. Take this list with you 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 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.