Your Dutch pension abroad: what travels with you, and who taxes it
The accrued AOW travels in full to the EU and to Australia — the latter thanks to a 2001 treaty. Your company pension too, but where you pay tax on it depends on the tax treaty, and you arrange the exemption yourself.
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.
Good news first: to none of our destinations do you lose the Dutch pension you built up.
- The AOW, the Dutch state pension, goes with you to all countries of the European Economic Area and Switzerland.
- For Australia a 2001 treaty provides that the SVB, which pays the AOW, determines your old-age pension "directly and exclusively" on your Dutch insurance years.
- Your company pension simply pays out to whatever address.
What does change sits in three details you want to know before departure:
- the amount follows your household;
- the taxation follows the tax treaty;
- the exemption from Dutch wage tax doesn't come by itself.
To which countries does your benefit travel?
The Dutch government is brief about it: to the countries of the EEA (the EU plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) and to Switzerland you can take your benefit.
Beyond that it's only possible to countries with which the Netherlands has concluded a treaty. Then the rules differ per country. To Pakistan, for example, only the AOW for married people goes along and no other benefit at all. Australia has such a treaty, in force since 1 April 2003. Export is also possible to Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten and the BES islands.
How high is the AOW that goes with you?
The AOW has two amounts: one for people who live alone and one for people who live together. That household test simply moves with you. From 1 July 2026 the full AOW is, gross:
- € 1,662.16 a month for whoever lives alone;
- € 1,139.39 per person for whoever is married or cohabiting.
On top of that comes holiday allowance, paid out in May. Those are the amounts for full accrual. The years you lack, you also lack abroad. The export is complete, but of the percentage you built up.
| What | Amount or rule |
|---|---|
| Full AOW, living alone (from 1 July 2026) | € 1,662.16 gross a month |
| Full AOW, married or cohabiting | € 1,139.39 gross per person a month |
| Holiday allowance, living alone | € 104.78 gross a month, paid in May |
| Export to the EEA and Switzerland | in full |
| Export to Australia | in full, treaty in force since 1 April 2003 |
| Source-state threshold for pensions, treaty with Belgium | € 25,000 a year |
| Source-state threshold for pensions, treaty with Poland | € 20,000 a year |
| Source-state threshold for pensions, treaty with Germany | € 15,000 a year |
Who taxes your pension?
This article is about the payout. Who may tax it is a different question, with its own answer per pot.
NederlandWereldwijd sums up the main rule: if you live in Belgium, Germany, France, Poland or Spain, you usually pay tax on your Dutch pension in your country of residence. There are two exceptions:
- If you worked for the Dutch government, that pension usually remains taxed in the Netherlands. That's different if you hold the nationality of your country of residence.
- If your pension exceeds a threshold, the Netherlands may still tax it under some treaties: € 25,000 a year in the treaty with Belgium, € 20,000 with Poland, € 15,000 with Germany.
A pension you built up in the Netherlands and later transferred to a foreign insurer still counts as a Dutch pension.
How that threshold works exactly, with the three conditions that must apply at the same time, is in when your pension remains taxed in the Netherlands.
Why do you have to ask for the exemption yourself?
If the treaty assigns your pension to your country of residence, nothing happens without your doing. Your pension fund withholds Dutch wage tax until the Belastingdienst says it no longer has to. This is how you arrange it:
- You submit the request for exemption from wage-tax withholding.
- You include a tax residency certificate from the tax authority of your country of residence, as proof that you are liable to tax there. The form "Verklaring belastingplicht woonland" serves for that.
- You need your BSN for it.
If you live in Belgium, the Belgian tax authority doesn't sign the Dutch form. You then request a residency certificate of its own there.
Apply for the exemption as soon as your deregistration date is fixed, not when the first payment has already been made. Otherwise you pay twice and claim it back year after year.
Retiring early? Mind the healthcare route
One development can upend your planning if you stop before your AOW age. Whoever moves to the EU, the EEA or Switzerland with a Dutch pension normally arranges healthcare via the CAK. The CAK is the Dutch agency that arranges healthcare for people who live abroad on a Dutch benefit or pension.
That route is being narrowed. As expected, from 1 November 2026 only new applicants with AOW, Anw, WAO, WIA or Wajong will still be admitted. Do you have only an early retirement pension, an RVU benefit (a payment from your employer to stop working early) or wachtgeld? Then you have to arrange a policy yourself until your AOW starts. Whoever is already a CAK customer at that moment keeps their rights. Read what this means for your situation in the separate article on it.
Your Dutch pension pots themselves you almost always simply leave where they are. Pass on your address, arrange the exemption, and receive in due course: that is the route for almost everyone.
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.
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.
- Rijksoverheid — to which countries your benefit can go — rijksoverheid.nl
- Treaty database — the social security agreement Netherlands–Australia (2001) — wetten.overheid.nl
- SVB — the AOW amounts from 1 July 2026 — svb.nl
- NederlandWereldwijd — pension from the Netherlands, and where it is taxed — nederlandwereldwijd.nl
- Belastingdienst — applying for the wage-tax exemption certificate — belastingdienst.nl
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