Free checklist
The tax return on the year you left: what to gather
For the year in which you left the Netherlands, you file a separate return: the M return, or M-biljet. The form asks about two periods: the months in the Netherlands and the months after. With this list you have everything together before you start. It applies to every country, including countries we don't cover.
Gather this
- Your departure dateThe day you started living outside the Netherlands. Usually that is the date you deregistered from your municipality. Keep the proof of deregistration.
- Your annual statementsThe jaaropgaaf from your employer and from every Dutch benefit or pension. It shows your wages and the wage tax withheld.
- Your balances on 1 JanuaryOf all your bank and savings accounts, in the Netherlands and abroad, and the value of your investments. For the tax on assets, 1 January of the year you left counts, even if you left later that year.
- Your homeThe annual mortgage statement and the WOZ value (the municipal valuation). If you sold, also the notary's settlement: the sale price, the costs of sale and what you still owed.
- Your pension and annuitiesThe value of what you built up in the Netherlands. You request it from your pension fund or insurer. Anyone who emigrates must always fill in the question on income to be preserved.
- Your income after leavingWhat you earned or received in your new country in the year you left, converted to euros. Use the bank rate at the moment you received it, not today's rate.
- An income statement, if you live in EuropeDo you live in the EU, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, or on Bonaire, Sint Eustatius or Saba? And do you pay tax in the Netherlands on at least 90% of your income? Then you need an income statement, signed and stamped by the tax authority of your country of residence.
- Your partner's BSNIf you file together, you need your partner's citizen service number (BSN). If your partner doesn't have one, it has to be requested first.
- A working DigiDOr a European recognised login from your country of residence. With it you file online in Mijn Belastingdienst. Without it, you can file on paper with form M.
Want to know what each part of the form asks?
The checklist says what to gather. The guide walks you through the form, part by part, in plain language.
When it happens
- You file the return in the year after you left. If you left in 2026, you file it in 2027.
- The Belastingdienst (the Dutch tax office) sends a letter to your address abroad, if that address is correct in the RNI (the register for people living outside the Netherlands). The letter states the date by which your return must be in.
- No letter? You still have to file if you owe tax. For 2025 that threshold was € 58. If you are due a refund, you only get it by filing.
- If you can't make the date, request an extension before that date. After it, you can't.
- Online it can usually be done for the past five years. Forgot a year? Then you can often still catch up.
Sources
- Belastingdienst: filing for the year of emigration (Dutch)
- Belastingdienst: Toelichting aangifte M 2025, the explanatory notes (pdf, Dutch)
- Belastingdienst: do I have to file? (Dutch)
- Belastingdienst: requesting an extension from abroad (Dutch)
Checked on 14 October 2026, against the notes for 2025.
Guide
The guide to the M form
The form has more than a hundred questions, and the notes from the Belastingdienst run to over a hundred pages, in Dutch only. Most questions don't concern you. The guide shows which ones do, and explains them in plain language.
€ 45 one-offOne-off, no subscription. Already included in every Vertrekklaar plan.
What's in it
- For each part of the form: what it asks, which papers you need, and the question numbers so you can find it.
- The places where it often goes wrong: the Dutch and the foreign period, your assets on 1 January, your home after you leave, the tax credits and the protective assessment.
- For each part, when you are better off with a tax adviser.
- A worksheet you fill in yourself: what you have, what you still need to request, and your own notes. It stays in your own browser.
- When the return comes, how to request an extension, and what happens after.
What a part looks like
One part of the guide, on the tax on your savings and investments in the year you left.
What the guide doesn't do
I don't fill in your return and I don't check it. I don't calculate amounts for you either. The guide explains what is asked and what to gather, with the source. If your situation is complicated, the guide says so and why.
On the form for 2025: questions 31 to 38, and 61 to 63
Box 3: your savings and investments around your departure date
What it asks
For box 3, the tax on savings and investments, the value on 1 January counts. That stays so if you left during the year. Your departure date doesn't decide which balance counts. It does decide for how many months it counts.
For the Dutch period you declare everything you had on 1 January: accounts in the Netherlands and abroad, investments, crypto, a second home. The tax-free allowance for 2025 was € 57,684 per person. The benefit is then scaled to the number of full months you lived in the Netherlands.
For the foreign period you declare only real estate in the Netherlands, such as a holiday home or a let property, and profit rights in Dutch businesses. The Netherlands doesn't tax your Dutch bank account in that period.
If the actual return on your assets is lower than the deemed return, you can choose the actual return at question 38.
Gather
- The annual statements of all your bank and savings accounts as at 1 January, including foreign ones
- The value of your investments on 1 January
- The WOZ value of a second home or let property in the Netherlands, and the debt on it
Where it often goes wrong
- You enter the balance on your departure date. The form asks for the value on 1 January.
- After 1 January you sold a home in the Netherlands that you declared for the foreign period. Then you correct for the months you no longer had it, at question 62.
- You forget the foreign accounts in the Dutch period. They belong there.
A tax adviser is sensible if you have substantial assets or real estate, or are unsure whether the actual return is more favourable.
Good to know
- Which year is this for?
- For the year you left, in 2026 or earlier. The explanation follows the notes for 2025. When the notes for 2026 come out, I check the guide against them. Question numbers can shift by a place from year to year; the guide says so.
- My country isn't on your site.
- That doesn't matter. The M return is the Dutch side, and it is the same for every country. Where your country of residence makes a difference, the guide says so.
- I already have a Vertrekklaar plan.
- Then the guide is included. Log in and pick it on your dashboard.
- Is this advice?
- No. It explains the form, with the source. For your own tax position, a tax adviser is the right route. The guide says for each part when that's sensible.
Your details stay on your own device
What you put in the worksheet stays in your own browser. Nothing goes to our server. So work on the device you will also file on.
The M form guide
€ 45 one-off
One-off, no subscription. Already included in every Vertrekklaar plan.
Ready to begin?
Forty-nine journeys are fully ready: your step-by-step plan, your documents and your costs in one place, and the plan keeps an eye on your deadlines. You pay once, and then it's yours.