What changes financially when you move to Finland?
Tick where your income comes from. You then see which rules Finland 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?
Healthcare runs via the kotikunta and has three ceilings
You get access to public healthcare via your kotikunta, your registration in a Finnish municipality of residence. Above that, statutory annual ceilings apply. Together they form your maximum healthcare risk: the most you pay yourself per year.
You pay a co-payment per visit until you reach the healthcare ceiling. After that you pay nothing more for the rest of the year for the care that counts. Medicines and patient transport each have their own ceiling. Together that comes to a maximum risk of about € 1,750 per person per year. So big financial surprises do not exist here. What can surprise you in the first months are the amounts per visit.
- healthcare ceiling per calendar year (2026)
- € 815
Source: STM — the maksukatto, the annual ceiling on co-payments — checked on 2026-08-28
Read the whole storyWhat 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, 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 insurance with the SVB closes the gap, 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. That is why 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 on deregistration
Your basic health insurance stops on the day you deregister. 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. That is Finnish public healthcare, as soon as your kotikunta is settled. Or it is the CAK route with an S1, 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 Finnish healthcare: access hangs on the kotikunta, and that only exists after the registration chain.
Read the whole storyFor inheritance and gifts the Netherlands counts you in for ten years, but the treaty may set inheritance aside
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, on death and for gifts. The inheritance tax treaty with Finland may set that aside on death. Have a tax adviser check whether that applies to you. For gifts the ten-year rule still applies.
The treaty from 1954 only covers estates and has no rule on nationality. Under the treaty, what is not real estate or a business may only be taxed by the country where you live. Residence there means where you permanently stay, with the clear intention of remaining there. What you give away in the first ten years, to your children for example, does fall under Dutch gift tax. For a gift in the first year after you leave, that even applies to everyone who lived in the Netherlands, also without Dutch nationality. So review your will and your gift plans before you leave.
- deemed residence for gifts
- 10 years
- deemed residence on death
- 10 years, unless the treaty sets it aside
This is not tax advice
These are the rules that apply to your situation. What they add up to is not shown here. Finland is a tax oddity. Two countries may tax your occupational pension at the same time: the Netherlands up to 20%, and Finland because you live there. How the crediting works out net for your pensions differs per situation. A tax adviser who knows the treaty 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.
Every step on one list, free
Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for Finland: 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 Finland 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.