For pensioners
Retiring to Portugal
Portugal was the pension country for years, and the reason for that disappeared in 2024: the NHR regime is closed to newcomers. What remains is still a good route — healthcare through the CAK, an AOW that travels along in full, a manageable registration — but one in which you have to make the tax picture honest beforehand.
Start with the tax, not with the house. The successor to the NHR (IFICI) is for a narrow group of professions, and pensioners are not among them; you fall under the ordinary Portuguese rates, and what the Netherlands still levies on your pension depends on which pot it comes from. Anyone who looks into that after buying a house has bought on a sum that does not add up.
Then the numbers, in order. As an EU citizen you apply for the NIF from the Netherlands, without the paid tax representative commercial services push on you — no NIF, no bank account, no rental contract. After three months of residence you have thirty days to register at the câmara, and the número de utente for healthcare runs, for pensioners, through the S1 from the CAK.
Two things you arrange in the Netherlands before you go: letting your health insurance end on the day your new cover starts, and — if you stop before your AOW age — knowing that the CAK route is expected to narrow from 1 November 2026. Your car can come along with a full ISV exemption, provided you know the deadlines.
Still deciding between countries? To the pension comparer
Your healthcare — through the CAK, with two numbers
Emigrating on early retirement: the CAK route is expected to close as of 1 November 2026
Whoever moves to the EU or Switzerland with a Dutch pension arranges their healthcare via the CAK. That door is closing to a crack: as expected, from 1 November only new applicants with AOW, Anw, WAO, WIA or Wajong will be admitted. Early retirement and RVU fall outside it — whoever is already a customer keeps their rights.
Updated 16 August 2026
NISS and número de utente: the two numbers that carry your Portuguese life
After the NIF come two more numbers: the NISS for work and social security, the número de utente for healthcare. Who applies for them, where, and the route pensioners take through the CAK — with a counter that arranges three numbers in one go.
Updated 28 August 2026
Cancelling your health insurance without a gap
Your Dutch basic insurance is tied to living or working in the Netherlands and stops being a given on emigration. The art is to have the end date match your new cover — and to know which route belongs to your situation.
Updated 28 August 2026
Taking medicines across the border: certificates, supply and the 90-day ceiling
For medicines under the Opium Act you need a certificate — and the Dutch system only carries you for three months. What you arrange with the CAK, what Australia wants to see at the border, and why finding a local doctor simply belongs to your first weeks.
Updated 11 September 2026
Your money: the paradise is closed, this does apply
Tax in Portugal: the paradise is closed (and what does apply)
The famous NHR regime has been closed to newcomers since 2024. Its successor (IFICI) is for a narrow group of professions — most Dutch emigrants simply fall under the normal Portuguese rates. What that means, before you decide.
Updated 11 September 2026
When does your pension stay taxed in the Netherlands? The three pots and the three conditions
"Your pension is taxed in your new country of residence" is right by approximation and not in the details. Your AOW, your company pension and your government pension each follow a rule of their own, and with the company pension the Netherlands can still levy if three conditions apply at once. This article explains which three, and which four questions you have to answer for your own situation.
Updated 27 August 2026
Your Dutch pension abroad: what comes along, and who levies
The AOW (the Dutch state pension) travels fully to the EU and to Australia — the latter thanks to a treaty from 2001. Your company pension too, but *where* you pay on it depends on the tax treaty, and the exemption you arrange yourself.
Updated 11 September 2026
Your AOW accrual stops on departure — and you have one year to repair that
Every year outside the Netherlands costs you 2% AOW (the Dutch state pension), for life. The SVB has a voluntary continuation that closes that gap — but signing up is only possible in the first year after departure, and almost everyone misses that deadline.
Updated 19 September 2026
Your paperwork, in the right order
Arranging the NIF before you leave: the opening move of your Portuguese process
Without a NIF — the Portuguese tax number — no bank account, no rental contract, no contracts. As an EU citizen you can already apply for it from the Netherlands, without the tax representative that commercial services make you pay for.
Updated 11 September 2026
The CRUE: the registration at the câmara that's mandatory after three months
After three months in Portugal you have 30 days to register — not at an immigration office, but at the town hall. What it costs, what you bring, and the fine almost nobody knows about.
Updated 11 September 2026
Buying a house in Portugal: first pay the tax yourself, then everything in one go at Casa Pronta
Portugal sits exactly between the Netherlands and Spain. The taxes — the IMT and the stamp duty of 0.8% — *you* as buyer pay before the transfer. But after that the government has something almost no country has: the Balcão Casa Pronta, one counter where the deed of sale and the entry in the register happen in one appointment. Then comes the annual IMI.
Updated 28 August 2026
Taking your car to Portugal: the ISV exemption that saves thousands of euros
Portugal levies a hefty import tax (ISV) on cars — but whoever moves can get full exemption. The conditions are precise, the deadlines hard, and whoever knows them takes their car along almost for free.
Updated 11 September 2026
Want to walk this journey with the order watched — the NIF before you leave, the registration within the deadline, your Dutch affairs closed on the right day? The Portuguese step-by-step plan is ready for you.
The departure guide
Five mails, and you see your whole journey
Not ready to start yet? Choose your destination and we'll send you the departure guide: five mails in a week and a half, with the order, the pitfalls and the real costs. After that at most one mail a month: first the question where your plans stand, then now and then one thing that fits the time of year or your country. No newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
Ready to begin?
Forty-four journeys are fully ready: your step-by-step plan, your documents and your costs in one place, with the timing watched. Pay once, and it's yours.