What changes financially when you move to Estonia?

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

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; it 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 out 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 every year, 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

For the year of your move you file the M return

In the year you move you are partly a Dutch and partly an Estonian taxpayer. For that year you file the M return in the Netherlands, the return for the year in which you emigrate.

Also adjust your provisional assessment in time. Otherwise you keep receiving money every month that you will later have to repay. The Estonian return for that same year is then the easy part: pre-filled and done in a few minutes.

Where this comes from: Practical sequence from the knowledge article; the M return itself is with the Belastingdienst.

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Note

Your Dutch basic health insurance ends on deregistration

Your basic health insurance stops on the day you deregister from your municipality. Not on 31 December, and not if you let it run on either.

The insurance belongs to living in the Netherlands, and that stops. What replaces it depends on your route. If you work in Estonia, you are insured through Tervisekassa, with the waiting period of fourteen days. If you come with a pension, it runs through the S1 from the CAK. You bridge the gap in between with insurance that you arrange before departure.

Where this comes from: Description from the knowledge article on the first weeks in Estonia; the waiting period at Tervisekassa is exactly the gap you cover.

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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. What they add up to is not shown here. Estonia has the most straightforward system of all the countries on this site: one flat tax and one tax-free allowance. But nobody has written out for you how the treaty divides your mix of pensions. A tax adviser who knows both systems works that 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.

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

Every step on one list, free

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