What changes financially when you move to Luxembourg?
Tick where your income comes from. You then see which rules Luxembourg and the Netherlands apply to your situation: which country may tax you, which schemes exist and how you get insured. With the source, so you can check it yourself.
This applies to everyone who moves. Tick above what applies to you, and the rest will appear.
What you have to show
Which financial requirements does the country set before you may stay?
Report within eight days, register within three months, both at the commune
If you stay longer than ninety days, you report your arrival within eight days of moving into your home, at the population office of your commune. Within three months you make the registration declaration. After that you get the registration certificate, and it stays valid indefinitely.
For the report you bring your passport and proof of your home: a lease, the owner's consent or the deed of sale. For the registration you also need proof of your ground of residence. That is the reason you are allowed to live in Luxembourg. If you live on your own means, you show sufficient income and healthcare cover. Pensioners hand in the S1: the European form that gives you healthcare at the expense of the Netherlands. After five years you apply to the ministry for the certificate of permanent residence.
- report arrival
- within 8 days
- registration declaration
- within 3 months
Source: Guichet.lu — staying in Luxembourg for more than ninety days as an EU citizen: the arrival report, the registration declaration within three months, the conditions per category, the registration certificate without expiry date and permanent residence after five years — checked on 2026-10-10
Read the whole storyWhat the Netherlands doesn't let go of
Which Dutch obligation travels with you?
Your AOW accrual stops on departure. It can be repaired within one year
This is about the accrual, not the payment. What you've built up until you leave stays yours. But as soon as you're no longer insured in the Netherlands, you build up nothing more. Every year until your AOW age then costs 2% of your later AOW. If you already receive AOW, this no longer applies.
For most emigrants the insurance ends at the moment of departure. If you keep working in the Netherlands or are posted abroad (your employer sends you abroad temporarily), you can stay insured. Voluntary continued insurance with the SVB closes the gap, for ten years at most. That is only possible if your application is in within one year of your compulsory insurance ending. You must also have been insured for at least a year directly before that. The premium depends on your income and is revised every year. That is why no amount is given here. Put that date in your diary before you go.
- reduction per uninsured year
- 2% of your AOW
- application for voluntary insurance
- no later than 1 year after your insurance ends
- duration of voluntary insurance
- 10 years at most
Source: Algemene Ouderdomswet (General Old Age Pensions Act) — article 13(1) (2% reduction per uninsured calendar year), article 35(1) (voluntary insurance, ten years at most) and article 36(1) (application no later than one year after the compulsory insurance ends) — checked on 2026-09-19
Read the whole storyFor inheritance and gifts the Netherlands counts you in for ten more years
The Inheritance Tax Act (Successiewet), the law on inheritance and gift tax, pretends an emigrated Dutch national still lives in the Netherlands for ten years. That applies on death and to gifts.
If you die within ten years of leaving, your heirs pay Dutch inheritance tax, as if you still lived here. What you give away in those years, to your children for example, falls under Dutch gift tax. So review your will and your gift plans before you leave. For a gift in the first year after you leave, this even applies to everyone who lived in the Netherlands, also without Dutch nationality.
- deemed residence
- 10 years
This is not tax advice
These are the rules that apply to your situation, not what they add up to for you. With Luxembourg the country of residence taxes your pension and your AOW. Luxembourg does that with a progressive scale per tax class: the higher your income, the higher the rate. What that means for your mix of pensions, and which class you get, nobody has written out for you. That is the work of a tax adviser who knows both systems. Take this list to that conversation.
Still deciding between countries? Put the rules of two or three countries side by side
Then actually doing it
Knowing which rules apply is the first half. The second is applying them in time: in the right order, without missing a deadline, and with your documents at hand.
Every step on one list, free
Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for Luxembourg: every step in order, to print and tick off. With it, five mails in a week and a half about the pitfalls and the real costs. If the rules for Luxembourg change, you'll hear about it. After that we ask once where your plans stand, send one offer, and now and then one thing that fits your moment. No newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.