Inheritance tax after emigration: the Netherlands keeps taxing for ten years

If you emigrate as a Dutch national, you keep "living" in the Netherlands for inheritance and gift tax for another ten years. If you die in that time, your heirs pay Dutch inheritance tax (erfbelasting), wherever they live. The same goes for a gift made in that time.

Three things to know up front:

• If you are not Dutch, only a one-year rule applies, and only to gifts.
• A few treaties and the arrangements with Curaçao and Sint Maarten differ.
• Which inheritance law divides your estate is a separate matter, arranged at the notary.

What exactly does the law say?

The Netherlands levies inheritance tax if the deceased lived in the Netherlands (Inheritance and Gift Tax Act 1956, article 1). Article 3 extends that:

• Paragraph 1, for Dutch nationals. Anyone who lived in the Netherlands and dies or makes a gift within ten years of leaving is deemed to have lived here at that moment.
• Paragraph 2, for everyone. Anyone who lived in the Netherlands and makes a gift within one year of leaving is deemed to have lived here for that gift.

According to the policy decree, you must be Dutch at departure and at the time of death or gift. Anyone who at that moment is no longer Dutch falls outside paragraph 1.

Who pays?

The recipient: your heir, or whoever receives the gift (article 36). An heir abroad also pays Dutch inheritance tax, according to the Belastingdienst (Dutch Tax Administration), if the deceased was Dutch and died within ten years of leaving. After those ten years the heir pays nothing here, even if they live in the Netherlands themselves.

Situation	Does the Netherlands tax?	Term after departure
Dutch national dies or gives after emigrating	yes, as if still living here	ten years
Non-Dutch national gives after leaving	yes, gift tax	one year
Non-Dutch national dies after leaving	no	from departure
Dutch national moves to Curaçao or Sint Maarten	yes	five years

Which treaties change the rule?

The Netherlands has a treaty on inheritances with a few countries, sometimes covering gifts too:

• United Kingdom: the Netherlands keeps taxing if the deceased or donor was Dutch and lived here in the preceding ten years, and credits the British tax (articles 11 and 13).
• Austria: the same for inheritances and gifts; a gift in the first year after leaving may also be taxed by the Netherlands, whatever your nationality (articles 8 and 11).
• Switzerland, inheritances only: ten years, if the deceased was Dutch at departure, with a deduction for the Swiss tax; not for those holding both nationalities.
• United States, inheritances only: the Netherlands may tax a Dutch citizen under its own law (article 9). If the deceased was only Dutch and lived in the US for seven of the last ten years, the Netherlands credits the American tax (article 11).
• Israel, inheritances only: ten years (article 12), except for an "Oleh", an immigrant under the Israeli Law of Return, who lived in Israel without interruption.
• Finland and Sweden, inheritances only: no nationality rule. Assets other than real estate and business assets are taxed only in the country where the deceased "had his permanent residence with the clear intention of keeping it". Have an adviser check what that means for the ten-year rule.

The arrangements with Curaçao and with Sint Maarten shorten the term to five years (article 28). The Tax Arrangement for the Kingdom, which applies to Aruba, has no shorter term, but as a rule allocates an estate to the country where you actually live (article 27). A gift within twelve months of leaving may still be taxed additionally by the former country of residence (article 29). Have an adviser check what that means for you.