AOW, pension and tax in Ecuador: full AOW, but no tax treaty

If you live in Ecuador, you get your full AOW, even as a single person. Since 1 November 2006 the Netherlands and Ecuador have had a treaty on paying out and checking benefits. There is no tax treaty. Ecuador is missing from the overview the Dutch Tax Administration published in January 2026, and from NederlandWereldwijd's list. So the Netherlands keeps taxing your AOW and your pension. Ecuador taxes your worldwide income as the country of residence, but deducts the tax you paid in the Netherlands.

Income	Netherlands	Ecuador, if you are tax resident there
AOW	taxed; a single person keeps 70% of the minimum wage	taxed as foreign income, with a deduction for the Dutch tax
Occupational pension, ABP	taxed, as wages from former employment in the Netherlands	likewise
Annuity	taxed if the premiums were deductible	likewise
Own home in the Netherlands	Dutch income
Income in 2026 up to 12,208 dollars		0%
Above that		rising from 5 to 37%
If you are over 65		another 12,208 dollars exempt

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. The treaty with Ecuador is about benefits.

Article 7.2 of the Income Tax Act sets out what you then report in the Netherlands: your pension as 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-law body such as the SVB (under e). Your occupational pension, your annuity and your AOW remain Dutch income; see also where your pension is taxed.

For "other countries", which include Ecuador, the Dutch Tax Administration lists as deductions only the entrepreneur's allowance and the tax-free capital in box 3. The tax credits are not among them.

How much AOW do you get?

The full amount. In 2024 the minister named Ecuador among the 36 countries outside the EU, the EEA and Switzerland with which the Netherlands has a social security agreement, and to those countries the Netherlands must export the full AOW. A single person therefore keeps 70% of the minimum wage, instead of the 50% that applies outside a treaty country.

The treaty mainly regulates checks. You identify yourself with an official identity document at the IESS, Ecuador's social insurance institute, and the IESS confirms this to the SVB (article 5). If you do not respond within three months to a request for information or an examination, the SVB may refuse or stop the benefit (article 10). The treaty does not cover child benefit as long as Dutch law restricts it outside the Netherlands (article 4).

What does Ecuador tax?

You become tax resident if you are in Ecuador for 183 days or more in a calendar year (article 4.1 of the Ley de Régimen Tributario Interno). A resident pays tax on income from Ecuador and from abroad (article 2). The exemption in article 9 names benefits from the IESS, employer pensions under Ecuadorian labour law and pensionistas del Estado; the AOW or a Dutch pension is not expressly named. Have an Ecuadorian adviser confirm how the SRI applies this.

Tax you paid abroad on the same income may be deducted, up to the amount Ecuador would levy on that income (article 49). In 2026 the rate only starts above 12,208 dollars a year. If you are over 65, the same amount again is exempt on top of that (article 9, paragraph 12). You file in March, on a day that depends on the ninth digit of your cédula.

Even if you pay nothing on balance, filing may be compulsory. The SRI only exempts a resident whose gross income does not exceed the tax-free band of 12,208 dollars. Keep your Dutch annual statements and assessments: with them you credit the Dutch tax.