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Partner coming along without a job of their own: deregistering, healthcare, AOW and the house

Your partner has a job, a visa or a right of residence there; you go along without a job of your own. Administratively you are no passenger: the deregistration, the end of your health insurance and your AOW accrual apply to you separately. What you get back if you arrange it well, what it costs if you let it slide — and when "simply staying registered" is allowed.

5 min read

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

If you "simply" go along with your partner, without a job of your own there, to the Dutch government you are still an independent emigrant with a file of your own. If you're away more than eight months a year, this applies to you:

  • You deregister with the municipality.
  • Your health insurance stops.
  • Your AOW accrual stops. AOW is the Dutch state pension. You can continue that accrual voluntarily for at least € 569 a year.

If you stay in the Netherlands at least five months a year, you may remain registered. This applies to every destination. What you need to be allowed to live there, a visa, a permit or only a registration, is in the country steps of your plan.

Why not simply stay registered?

It's the first thought of almost everyone in this situation: why would you deregister if you have no job there? Because with most plans it isn't a choice.

The Personal Records Database Act, the law on registration with the municipality, says you notify your departure if you can reasonably expect to stay at least two thirds of the year outside the Netherlands. NederlandWereldwijd turns that into "more than 8 months", not necessarily consecutive. It warns that you can otherwise be fined.

The rule applies per person. Your partner can deregister while you stay registered, if you are here at least five months a year.

Staying registered while you're away more than eight months gives you nothing: your passport stays Dutch, your BSN stays valid. What you lose are entitlements (health insurance, benefits, AOW accrual), and you lose those too by wrongly staying registered, only then with a fine or a claw-back on top.

What you get back if you do it right:

  • an international proof of deregistration (only if the deregistration date equals your emigration date);
  • a deregistration the municipality itself passes on to the tax office, your health insurer and your pension fund.

What stops for you on the deregistration date?

Your health insurance hangs on living in the Netherlands, not on your policy. Check whether you are co-insured with your partner's employer and from which day. If not, you take out insurance yourself. See Cancelling health insurance without a gap.

Your AOW accrual. Every year you are not insured you later get 2% less AOW, and that gap can't be made up. The SVB, the agency that pays the AOW, offers voluntary insurance for AOW and Anw. The Anw is the Dutch survivors' benefit. The conditions:

  • You apply within one year of the end of the compulsory insurance (usually the day you leave).
  • You must have been insured for at least one consecutive year directly before departure.

Without income of your own you pay the minimum. Apply for the Anw right away: if you die uninsured, your survivors get nothing. Background in AOW on emigration.

Your benefits stop on emigration and you stop them yourself. See Stopping benefits on emigration.

Your tax position. You both become non-resident taxpayers. The Netherlands then only taxes Dutch income, and real estate in the Netherlands "is always taxed in the Netherlands". For the year of departure you each file an M return, the return for the emigration year.

You keep deductions and tax credits only as a qualifying non-resident taxpayer. For that you have to meet two conditions:

  • You live in the EU, the EEA, Switzerland or on the BES islands.
  • You pay tax in the Netherlands on at least 90% of your income. As partners that is together on 90% of your joint income.

With a job of your partner in America or Australia you won't reach that.

What Rule or amount
Deregistration compulsory more than 8 months a year outside the Netherlands
Notification of departure from 5 days before departure up to the day itself
AOW reduction 2% per uninsured year
Applying for voluntary AOW insurance within 1 year of the end of compulsory insurance (usually departure)
Voluntary AOW premium (2026) 17.9% of your income, minimum € 569, maximum € 5,693
Voluntary Anw premium (2026) 0.1%, minimum € 3, maximum € 31
Qualifying non-resident taxpayer ≥ 90% of income taxed in the Netherlands
Mortgage interest relief after departure, house empty and for sale 4 more years
Suspending a car at the RDW for 1, 2 or 3 years

Rather have everything on one list?

Choose your destination and we'll send you the departure checklist, with every step in order, and five mails about the pitfalls and the real costs. After that, an occasional email, including one offer. You can switch it off at any time.

We use your address, and your departure date if you fill it in, only for the checklist, the guide and the mails after it. You can unsubscribe under every mail.

What do you arrange yourself, and what if you're here part of the year?

Three things your partner can't do for you:

  • a working DigiD with the app;
  • a bank account in your own name, not only a joint account (see Keeping a bank account and DigiD);
  • a foreign address you pass on to every agency.

If you're here part of the year, you suspend the car you leave here at the RDW, the Dutch vehicle registration authority. Then: no road tax, insurance or MOT (the periodic vehicle test), but it may not be on the public road.

If you stay under the threshold, you keep your BSN, DigiD, GP and health insurance. That health insurance does hang on where you actually live. So put your rhythm to your insurer and the SVB beforehand.

What happens to the house?

After emigration mortgage interest relief only exists for whoever is a qualifying non-resident taxpayer. If the house stands empty and for sale, you may deduct the interest for four more years. After that the home counts as Dutch assets in box 3, the tax on savings and investments, with the mortgage as a debt against it. With letting or keeping it, that happens immediately. Selling, letting or keeping you put to a tax adviser once, before deregistering.

If studying children stay behind, you pass your foreign income on to their supplementary grant from DUO yourselves, via Mijn DUO. DUO is the agency that runs student finance. For younger children who stay behind other rules apply: Emigrating with children after a divorce. Whoever lets it slide discovers the claw-back, the AOW gap and the lost interest relief one by one. Usually that's in the second year, when the M return comes in.

In Vertrekklaar this belongs to the phase Closing down the Netherlands of the journey: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See how the step-by-step plan works.

Want to know more about this?

Choose your destination and we'll send you the departure checklist, with every step in order, and five mails about the pitfalls and the real costs. After that, an occasional email, including one offer. You can switch it off at any time.

We use your address, and your departure date if you fill it in, only for the checklist, the guide and the mails after it. You can unsubscribe under every mail.

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.

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