Your new country · plan voor alleen de Nederlandse kant
Leaving the Netherlands well
For anyone who wants to close off the Dutch side of emigrating properly: if you're moving to a country we don't have a plan for yet, if the new country's side is already arranged, or if you've already left and are still registered. Deregistering, your health insurance, your AOW, benefits, taxes and cancelling, in the right order and with the deadlines.
€ 79 one-off · 27 steps · no subscription
- For whom
- Anyone who only needs the Dutch side: before you leave, or once you've gone
- The limit
- Outside the Netherlands for at least eight months in a year: you deregister
- Note
- The deadline for voluntary AOW insurance runs from when you actually left, not from when you deregistered
Last updated: 31 October 2026
Will your departure date work? Check it in the free step-by-step plan →
Five phases, from the big choice to what you keep up afterwards
This plan is only about the Netherlands. Your new country's side, such as registering there, healthcare and the tax treaty, isn't included. It starts with one question: have you already left? If you already live abroad and are still registered, you first get two steps to put that right. After that it's the same for everyone: healthcare and social security, taxes and assets, wrapping up, and the family.
- Deciding
The eight months, and what comes first if you've already left
In this phase you see what this plan does and doesn't do, and what differs between living inside or outside the EU. You look at the municipality's eight-month rule. If you've already left, you deregister now and put your healthcare, benefits and the AOW deadline right using your actual departure date. And you choose your target date.Read more
- Healthcare and social security
No gap in your healthcare, and your AOW build-up
In this phase you line up your health insurance with your cover in your new country. You decide on voluntary AOW insurance, within the one year you have for it. You arrange what happens to your benefit or pension, and you stop your allowances from the Dienst Toeslagen.Read more
- Taxes and assets
Where you pay tax, the year you leave and your company
In this phase you work out where you pay tax, and file the return for the year you leave with the M form. If you have a private limited company (bv), you get a protective assessment. You decide about your house, and look at inheritance tax and your student debt.Read more
- Wrapping up
Deregistering, cancelling and staying reachable
In this phase you deregister with the municipality, cancel what stops, and keep DigiD, your phone number and your bank working from abroad. And you decide about the car and your pet.Read more
- Family and afterwards
The children, and what you keep up every year
In this phase you arrange what changes for the children, also if a child stays in the Netherlands. And you list what you keep up every year from abroad: your life certificate, your tax return, your passport and your vote.Read more
This is what one step of your plan looks like
This is the real thing: one of the steps of the journey to your new country, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan, with the deadlines, the offices and the sources.
Step 1.2 of your plan
Eight months: do you have to deregister
- Lead time
- one decision, before you commit to anything else
- Costs
- none
With this step you know whether you have to deregister. It hinges on one number.
The law says: whoever can reasonably expect to spend at least two thirds of a year outside the Netherlands declares their departure. Two thirds of a year is eight months.
This is how the rule works:
- It's about what you expect in advance, not about counting afterwards.
- The months needn't be consecutive. Two stretches of five months within a year count too.
- A registration or residence document in your new country changes nothing. It's about where you actually live.
- Whether you keep your house in the Netherlands doesn't matter.
- The rule applies per person.
Whoever emigrates is above that line by definition. So for you it isn't a choice. What you never do: stay registered while you're away more than eight months. That builds up a claim to pay back healthcare costs and allowances, retroactively.
One thing to know: your health insurance and your AOW don't depend on your registration, but on where the SVB considers you to live. If you're away for less than a year and temporarily, you usually stay insured, even if you deregister. Whoever settles in another country no longer is. The next phase covers that.
Will you live part of the year in the Netherlands? The rule applies then too. Four months here and eight there already falls under the duty to deregister. Five months here gives a margin.
What this step rests on
- BRP Act, article 2.43 — declaring departure when at least two thirds of the year is spent outside the Netherlands
- NederlandWereldwijd — when do I have to deregister from a Dutch municipality
- SVB policy rule SB1027 — end of compulsory insurance after departure: less than a year you stay a resident, longer the first year still, after three years no longer
- Rijksoverheid — am I insured under the health insurance if I live abroad
And this is the dashboard that step lives in. The example shows the plan for Spain; your dashboard shows the plan for your new country.
This is step 1.2 of 27. The other 26 are ready for you, each with the same sources, the same offices and a schedule that keeps track of your dates.
See all 27 steps for your new countryWhat you get for € 79
All 27 steps to your new country, for your situation
In order, with the office and the official source at every step. Steps that don't apply to you don't appear.
Your deadlines in one place
For each step you see the latest date to start, and you get a heads-up before something is due or expires. Your documents sit in the vault, with their dates.
A plan that stays right
Twice a month we check the sources. If something changes, it's in your plan and you get a message.
The step-by-step plan for your new country
€ 79
one-off · 27 steps
- Pay once, no subscription
- Destination changes? Within 30 days I switch your plan to another country free of charge
- Stuck on a step? You get a personal answer within two working days
What will your move to your new country cost? Work it out →
Know someone moving to your new country? Give this plan as a gift →
Every step on one list, free
Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for your new country: 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 your new country 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.
Closing down the Netherlands: all your letters in one go
Moving to your new country starts with leaving the Netherlands properly. That's why the plan includes the letter tool: you enter your details once and every cancellation and notification letter is ready.
Just the letters, without the plan? That works too, for € 29
- Health insurance, rent, energy, subscriptions, GP, school, bank and pension fund: 16 kinds of letters. You enter your details only once.
- A sending list that counts back from your departure date and your notice period, even when that's three months.
- Also what you need to ask for as an emigrant: your no-claims years in English, your medical file and the school report (the report on your child for the new school).
Auke, maker of Vertrekklaar
On 2 January we're leaving ourselves, on a trip around the world with our family. What I put here, I'm arranging for my own family too.
On 20 September 2026 a customer wrote that the CAK rule for early retirement was missing from his plan. He was right. That evening the step was in thirteen plans, with the source attached.
The knowledge base on leaving the Netherlands
The articles on the Dutch side of emigrating: deregistering, your health insurance, your AOW, allowances and taxes.
- Emigrating on early retirement: the CAK route is expected to close as of 1 November 2026Whoever 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.
- Your AOW accrual stops on departure — and you have one year to repair thatEvery 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 the end of the compulsory insurance (usually the day you leave), and almost everyone misses that deadline.
- 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, under some treaties, 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.
- Keeping a bank account and DigiD: the two lines you never cutAfter your deregistration you still need the Netherlands for years — for the M return, refunds and your pension. Within the EU your bank account is a right, towards Australia a favour from the bank. And your DigiD you arrange before departure, not after.
- The protective assessment: the bill that travels with you, and that never expires for one itemOn emigration the Netherlands imposes an assessment on your pension, your annuity and your substantial shareholding that you don't have to pay — as long as you do nothing that makes it collectable. For pension and annuity you can ask for remission after ten years. For a substantial shareholding it doesn't: that one remains valid indefinitely.
- A gift for someone who is emigrating: what really helpsSomeone who is emigrating wants to take few things and has a great deal to arrange. The best gift is therefore light, or helps with the arranging. Ten ideas, from an afternoon of packing to a step-by-step plan for the new country.
All 22 articles about Leaving the Netherlands
- Emigrating on a Dutch benefit: what comes with you and what stops, with Turkey as the example
- Emigrating with your partner: the conversation, dividing the work and your papers
- Emigrating with children after a divorce: the consent that comes before everything
- Emigrating with children: how to help your child through the move
- Inheritance tax after emigration: the Netherlands keeps taxing for ten years
- The M form: the tax return for the year in which you emigrated
- Your car after emigrating: export it or transfer it, because keeping it in your own name is not allowed
- Your Dutch pension abroad: what travels with you, and who taxes it
- Cancelling your health insurance without a gap
- Taking medicines across the border: certificates, supply and the 90-day ceiling
- Partner coming along without a job of their own: deregistering, healthcare, AOW and the house
- Stopping benefits on emigration: do it yourself, and in time
- Deregistering with the municipality: when exactly, and what stops then
- Bringing your foreign partner back to the Netherlands: what the IND asks
- Losing your Dutch nationality abroad: the thirteen-year rule
- Moving back to the Netherlands: what to arrange in the first months
Ready to begin?
The step-by-step plan for your new country: 27 steps, with your documents and your costs in one place. For each step you see the latest date to start. You pay once and it's yours.