AOW, pension and tax in Czechia: a treaty from 1974 and an exemption that stacks
The treaty with Czechoslovakia from 1974 still applies and places your occupational pension and your AOW exclusively with Czechia. Czechia in turn exempts pensions from a mandatory scheme up to thirty-six times the minimum wage — in 2026 806,400 crowns. Together that means: up to that limit your pension is taxed nowhere, provided you know which part of it falls under it. Your government pension falls outside it.
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If you live in Czechia, your occupational pension and your AOW are taxed only in Czechia. And here that is good news: in 2026 Czechia exempts pensions from a mandatory scheme up to 806,400 crowns.
Three things to know up front:
- The treaty with Czechia isn't new. Most of the Netherlands' newer tax treaties place the pension with the source state, the country it comes from. This treaty was concluded in Prague on 4 March 1974 with Czechoslovakia, and still applies to Czechia in full.
- The Netherlands only lets go once you apply to the Belastingdienst for the wage tax exemption certificate. Without that certificate your fund keeps withholding wage tax.
- A government pension, such as ABP, stays with the Netherlands, unless you hold Czech nationality alongside the Dutch.
What the treaty says
Article 19: pensions and other similar remuneration paid to a resident of one of the States in consideration of past employment [are] taxable only in that State. So your occupational pension goes exclusively to Czechia, without threshold and without Dutch source-state tax: the Netherlands, the country the pension comes from, levies nothing on it.
The treaty has no social security article. Your AOW therefore falls under article 23, the residual article: items of income ... not expressly mentioned in the foregoing articles ... are taxable only in that State. Also exclusively Czechia.
So the Netherlands lets go, provided you apply to the Belastingdienst for the wage tax exemption certificate. For that you need a BSN and proof that you are a tax resident of Czechia, with the form Verklaring belastingplicht woonland. Without that certificate your fund keeps withholding wage tax.
The exception: the government pension
Article 20 paragraph 2: a pension paid by the Dutch state or a Dutch public body for services rendered may be taxed in that State. But it is taxable only in the other State if the individual is a resident and a national of that State.
So ABP and every other government pension stay with the Netherlands, and that part doesn't fall under the Czech exemption below. Czechia in turn exempts it from its own tax. Article 25 says that income which under the treaty may be taxed in the Netherlands is exempt from Czech tax. On the Czech side the treaty therefore works with exemption, not with a credit. Czechia may, however, count that pension when it sets the rate on your other income (article 25 B paragraph 3). You only notice that if your taxable income together with that pension exceeds 1,762,812 crowns a year, the threshold above which 23% applies. Below it the rate stays 15%. Whoever holds Czech nationality alongside the Dutch sees this pension go to Czechia too.
| Income | Treaty article | Who taxes |
|---|---|---|
| Occupational pension | 19 | Czechia only |
| AOW | 23 (residual article) | Czechia only |
| Government pension (ABP), Dutch national only | 20(2) | the Netherlands; Czechia exempts (art. 25) |
| Government pension, resident and Czech national | 20(2) | Czechia only |
What Czechia does with it itself: the exemption that stacks
This is where it gets interesting. The Czech income tax act exempts regularly paid pensions from a mandatory pension scheme up to thirty-six times the minimum wage in force on 1 January of the year. The tax authority expressly adds that benefits from a foreign mandatory insurance of the same kind count. For 2025 that was 748,800 crowns.
The minimum wage has stood at 22,400 crowns since 1 January 2026, 1,600 crowns more than in 2025. Thirty-six times that amount is 806,400 crowns a year. Up to that amount a pension from a mandatory scheme is untaxed in Czechia.
Your AOW falls under that without discussion: a statutory, mandatory scheme. For your Dutch occupational pension the question is whether it counts as a mandatory insurance of the same kind. A mandatory industry-wide pension is a stronger case than a voluntary annuity, and that is exactly the question you put to a tax adviser who knows both systems, and not to a forum.
What happens above the limit
Whatever comes out above the exemption falls into the ordinary brackets: 15% up to thirty-six times the average wage and 23% above it. That average wage is the assessment base of two years earlier times a coefficient, rounded up to whole crowns. For 2026 that is 46,278 × 1.0581 = 48,967 crowns, and thirty-six times that is 1,762,812 crowns.
From that comes off a basic tax credit: 30,840 crowns per person a year in 2025. That credit in practice makes the first two hundred thousand-odd crowns above the exemption untaxed.
| Czechia 2026 | Amount |
|---|---|
| Minimum wage on 1 January | 22,400 crowns a month |
| Exemption for pensions from a mandatory scheme (36 × minimum wage) | 806,400 crowns a year (2025: 748,800) |
| Average wage (46,278 × 1.0581) | 48,967 crowns a month |
| Rate 15% up to 36 × average wage | up to 1,762,812 crowns |
| Rate above that | 23% |
| Basic credit per person (2025 amount) | 30,840 crowns a year |
Work it out on your amounts. For an average Dutch pension it comes down to paying little to nothing in Czechia, and that is exactly why it's worth not forgetting the exemption certificate in the Netherlands.
Your accrued AOW comes along in full
Apart from the tax: the SVB pays the AOW in Czechia too, in euros. In a SEPA country that happens around the 24th of the month, with at most € 0.48 in bank charges per payment. Report your move to the SVB in time, with the date, your Czech address and your bank details.
Your further accrual, 2% per insured year, stops on the day of deregistration. Whoever leaves before AOW age can, according to the SVB, sometimes insure voluntarily.
In Vertrekklaar this is phase 1 of 5 of the journey, step 1.2: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Czechia or go straight to step 1.2 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.
- Agreement Netherlands-Czechoslovakia for the avoidance of double taxation — articles 19, 20, 23 and 25 — wetten.overheid.nl
- Finanční správa — the exemption of pensions up to thirty-six times the minimum wage — financnisprava.gov.cz
- Finanční správa — the rates, the limit and the basic credit for 2025 — financnisprava.gov.cz
- Government decree 365/2025 — the basis from which the 2026 average wage follows (46,278 crowns times 1.0581) — zakonyprolidi.cz
- MPSV — the minimum wage of 2026 — mpsv.gov.cz
- Belastingdienst — application for the wage tax exemption certificate and the certificate of tax liability in the country of residence — belastingdienst.nl
- SVB — payment of the AOW outside the Netherlands (SEPA, euros, costs) — svb.nl
- SVB — how AOW accrual works (2% a year, voluntary insurance) — svb.nl
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