AOW, pension and tax in Canada: 15% stays in the Netherlands, and what you must record on day one

Canada is a treaty country, so your accrued AOW goes with you in full — as a single person you keep the full 70%. But the Netherlands withholds up to 15% on your pension, and the deductions that EU emigrants keep don't apply here. One action on your day of arrival can save thousands of euros later.

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Written and checked by Auke on 14 October 2026, against the sources at the bottom. Is something no longer right? Report it below and I'll fix it.

If you live in Canada, Canada taxes your pension and your AOW (the Dutch state pension) as your country of residence, and under the tax treaty the Netherlands may withhold up to 15% on them. Canada credits what the Netherlands already withheld, so you do not pay twice.

Three things to know up front:

Canada is on the Dutch list of treaty countries: your accrued AOW travels with you in full, and as a single person you keep the full 70%.
The deductions that EU emigrants keep do not apply here.
One action on your arrival day can save thousands of euros later: recording the value of your assets.

What happens to your AOW?

Because the Netherlands has a treaty with Canada, your AOW stays fully intact. That is not a given. Outside treaty countries a single person drops from 70 to 50 percent of the net minimum wage, the married rate. That reduction therefore does not apply here. The SVB pays in Canadian dollars, not euros, so your net amount moves with the exchange rate.

What does change is the accrual: it stops on your departure date, and each missed year costs 2%. You can take out voluntary insurance, but then you have to register within one year of the end of the compulsory insurance (usually the day you leave), for at most ten years. Weigh that against what it costs (17.9% of your income, with in 2026 a minimum of € 569 and a maximum of € 5,693) and against what you build up in Canada yourself.

Because that counts too. The social security agreement lets your Dutch insurance years after age eighteen count as Canadian years of residence for Old Age Security (OAS), the Canadian old-age pension. They also count as contribution years for the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) if you fall short. One warning: the agreement covers only OAS and CPP. If you work in Quebec, you build up in the Quebec scheme, which has its own route.

Rule	Figure
AOW, single person in a treaty country	70% of the net minimum wage, in Canadian dollars
Accrual per insured year	2%
Registering for voluntary insurance	within 1 year of the end of compulsory insurance (usually departure), at most 10 years
Premium for voluntary AOW insurance (2026)	17.9%, minimum € 569, maximum € 5,693 a year
Dutch withholding on periodic pension and AOW	at most 15% of the gross amount
Dutch tax on a lump sum	no cap
Reporting of foreign property (T1135)	above CAD 100,000 at cost, not in your year of arrival
Canadian tax return	by 30 April

Who taxes your pension?

Here Canada differs from Germany and resembles Switzerland. Article 18 of the treaty lets the Netherlands keep a withholding tax of at most 15%. A withholding tax here is tax kept back by the country the money comes from. It applies to periodic payments from pensions, annuities and social security benefits such as the AOW. There is no threshold amount: it applies from the first euro.

Canada then taxes you as your country of residence on your worldwide income and credits what the Netherlands already withheld, so you do not pay twice. It is good to know, though, that an exemption declaration from the Belastingdienst does not bring this down to zero, as in some other countries. The realistic outcome is a reduction to that 15%.

Two things that often go wrong. Article 19 on government service expressly excludes pensions. A government pension (ABP from a public-sector job) therefore falls under the same 15% rule, and is not fully taxed in the Netherlands as under many other treaties. And for a lump sum the cap lapses: the Netherlands may tax that in full. If you are considering commuting a small pension, do so with that in mind.

Which deductions do you lose?

This is where Canada turns out more expensive than an EU destination. The qualifying non-resident taxpayer status is the scheme under which emigrants keep their Dutch deductions and tax credits if they tax at least 90% of their income in the Netherlands. That scheme applies only to the EU, the EEA, Switzerland and the BES islands. Canada falls outside it, and there is no residual category.

Concretely: no mortgage interest relief and no tax component of the tax credits. What remains is the entrepreneur's allowance for a Dutch business and the tax-free allowance in box 3. If you keep a home in the Netherlands, it stays taxed there, but the interest relief you counted on is not there.

What do you record on day one?

Now the point that is in no Dutch emigration guide and that can be worth thousands of euros.

On the day you become a tax resident of Canada, the Canadian tax authority treats your assets as if you sold them and immediately bought them back at the market value of that moment. All appreciation from before your arrival thereby falls outside Canadian tax. If you later sell your Dutch investment portfolio, Canada only taxes the growth after your arrival.

But that only works if you can prove that value. So record on your arrival day what your shares, your art, your collection and your other possessions are worth. You can do that with a printout, a valuation or a bank statement.

That same figure does something else. It determines whether you fall under the annual reporting duty for foreign property (Form T1135), which applies above CAD 100,000. There are two pleasant exceptions:

In the year you first become a resident you do not yet have to report anything.
Personal-use property does not count, such as a Dutch home you use exclusively yourself. If you rent it out, it does count.

Failure to file carries penalties, so put that report in your diary next to the 30 April return.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 3 of 5 of the journey, step 3.2: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Canada or go straight to step 3.2 in the open plan.

What this means for your numbers →

What this rests on

The facts in this article come from these official pages. Rules change. When in doubt, go by the source, not this article.

SVB — AOW treaty countries (Canada including Quebec) — svb.nl
Tax treaty Netherlands–Canada, article 18 — wetten.overheid.nl
Belastingdienst — deductions and credits when living abroad — belastingdienst.nl
Canada.ca — pensions under the agreement with the Netherlands — canada.ca
CRA — newcomers, world income and the valuation on arrival — canada.ca
SVB — premium for voluntary insurance outside the Netherlands (2026) — svb.nl
CRA — questions and answers about Form T1135 (CAD 100,000 threshold, no filing in your year of arrival, personal-use property excluded) — canada.ca

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