AOW, pension and tax in Belize: full AOW, no tax treaty

If you live in Belize, you receive your full AOW, the Dutch state pension, even as a single person. The Netherlands and Belize signed an agreement on paying out social security benefits in Belmopan on 12 May 2005, which has applied since 1 April 2006. In 2024 the minister listed Belize among the 36 countries and territories outside the EU, the EEA and Switzerland with which the Netherlands has such an agreement. There is no tax treaty: Belize is missing from the Belastingdienst's overview of January 2026. So the Netherlands keeps taxing your AOW and your pension. Belize leaves a foreign pension untaxed.

Income	Netherlands	Belize
AOW	taxed; a single person keeps 70% of the net minimum wage	exempt: social security benefit (section 8(1)(s))
Occupational pension, ABP	taxed	exempt for a retiree living in Belize (section 8(1)(r))
Annuity	taxed if the premiums were deductible	exempt, same section
Wages for work in Belize		25%; employees under BZ$ 29,000 a year are exempt
Income from outside Belize, as a QRP member		exempt, even if you do not transfer it

For the AOW Belize is a treaty country, but for tax it is not. Those are two different agreements. The 2006 agreement ensures your AOW goes along in full; it says nothing about which country levies tax.

How much AOW do you get?

Under article 9a of the AOW, anyone living outside the Netherlands receives the married rate: 50% of the net minimum wage, even if you are single. The agreement with Belize sets that rule aside. Article 4 provides that a benefit may not be restricted solely because you live in the other country. The minister wrote in 2024 that the Netherlands exports the full AOW to these countries. A single person thus keeps 70% of the net minimum wage (article 9).

What does not go along: supplements under the Supplementary Benefits Act and social assistance (article 4(2)). And child benefit stops. Article 7b of the Child Benefit Act gives no child benefit for a child living outside the Netherlands, and the agreement explicitly leaves that in place (article 4(4)).

The SVB can ask the Social Security Board in Belize to verify your details. If the SVB asks for proof of life, you can send it through the app. A stamp on a pre-printed certificate is available from the honorary consul in Belize; a new certificate is drawn up at the embassy in Mexico City.

Why does the Netherlands keep taxing?

NederlandWereldwijd puts it plainly: if there is no tax treaty with your country of residence, the Netherlands has the right to levy tax. Article 7.2 of the Income Tax Act sets out what you then declare in the Netherlands: wages for work you performed in the Netherlands (paragraph 2 under b), an annuity whose premiums were deductible (under d), and benefits from a Dutch public body such as the SVB (under e). See also where is your pension taxed and receiving a pension abroad.

For "other countries" the Belastingdienst lists the entrepreneur's deduction and the tax-free allowance in box 3. A tax credit, a reduction of the tax you pay in the Netherlands, you usually don't get. Depending on your country of residence you get at most the tax part of certain tax credits, and the premium part if you stay insured in the Netherlands for the national insurance schemes. What applies to you, you see in your tax return. The Netherlands and Belize do exchange information on tax matters since 1 January 2011, under a separate agreement.