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Poland · No visa required
Emigrating to Poland
For Poland you need no visa, but you do need two registrations. Within thirty days you register your address with the municipality; that gives you the PESEL, your Polish personal number. No later than the day after three months you register your right of residence with the voivode, the provincial office. And since 30 April 2022 the Netherlands taxes your pension and your AOW.
€ 199 one-off · 32 steps · no subscription
- Kind of journey
- Administrative: two registrations, no visa
- The clocks
- 30 days for the address, the day after 3 months for the right of residence
- Note
- The Netherlands taxes pension and AOW; Poland credits
Last updated: 14 October 2026
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Five phases, from the two clocks to the hectare limit
This journey is about deadlines you have to watch yourself. You register your address within thirty days of moving in. You register your right of residence no later than the day after three months. You bring your car in duty-free within twelve months (excise duty is the Polish tax on bringing in a car), and once it's there, you register it within thirty days. Then there's the tax treaty of 2002 with the protocol of 2020, an amendment to the treaty. That protocol put the taxing back with the Netherlands. It also tied your government pension to your nationality.
- Orientation
Two registrations, and a treaty that's still pre-2022 online
In this phase you learn how living in Poland is arranged, and what most pages get wrong. You may be there freely for three months. If you want to live there, that starts with two registrations at two counters. Then the tax. The protocol of 2020 made the treaty a source-state treaty: the country your income comes from may tax it. So the Netherlands taxes your occupational pension and your AOW, and Poland credits that against its own tax. A wage tax exemption as with Spain no longer exists here. Healthcare for pensioners runs through the CAK to the NFZ, the Polish health fund. Explore the region in January, not in July. The winter and the language count here when you choose where to live.Read more
- Closing the Netherlands
Don't apply for an exemption, arrange the credit
In this phase you work through the familiar list, with one reversed lesson. With southern countries such as Spain you apply for a wage tax exemption. Here you don't, because the Netherlands may tax. Poland deducts the Dutch tax from its own, at twelve percent up to 120,000 złoty and thirty-two percent above. If you're also Polish, your government pension goes to Poland instead. You also request the S1 from the CAK six weeks before departure: the form that gives you the right to healthcare in Poland. You contact the SVB in time. And Poland is a day's drive away, so the eight-month rule is a real option: whoever is away for less than eight months a year may stay registered in the Netherlands.Read more
- The move
No customs, but two clocks for the car
In this phase you move by road, without customs and without an inventory list. The car comes along without excise duty if five conditions hold at once. It's for your own use. It has been yours for six months. You bring it in within twelve months. You don't sell it for twelve months. And you can prove all of it. Since 2024, though, the registration must be lodged within thirty days of entry, or you face a fine of 500 złoty. So you have a year to decide, but a month as soon as you've decided. For the pet, a chip, a jab and the EU pet passport are enough.Read more
- Registration in Poland
First the address, because that's where the PESEL comes from
In this phase you arrange the registrations and your healthcare, in a fixed order. First the zameldowanie, the address registration at the municipality. You do it within thirty days of moving in, with proof of your right to the home. There you get the PESEL, the Polish personal number that bank, NFZ, tax and school hang on. Then the rejestracja pobytu, the registration of your right of residence with the voivode. You do it no later than the day after three months. You show the grounds on which you live there. If you live on your own means, you also need comprehensive health insurance: for pensioners that's the S1. Finally, register the S1 itself with the NFZ, the Polish health fund. The form in your drawer is not yet insurance.Read more
- Arrival
The licence stays, the land decides
In this phase you settle in and arrange the last things. An EU driving licence doesn't need exchanging. The hundred-and-eighty-five-day deadline going round applies to licences from outside the EU. As an EU citizen you may buy without a permit, except in the border zone and on agricultural land. Agricultural land has a separate act. Below 0.3 hectares that act doesn't apply. Up to one hectare anyone may buy. Above that only a farmer may, or whoever gets consent from the KOWR, the national agricultural support centre. So a house with two hectares around it is agricultural land. After five years you apply for permanent residence.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 Poland, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan, with the deadlines, the offices and the sources.
Step 2.3 of your plan
Know where you'll pay tax, and don't apply for an exemption
- Lead time
- one good conversation with a tax adviser who knows both countries
- Costs
- adviser's hours — depending on your situation
In this step you work out which country taxes your pension and your benefits, and how much. That decides what you keep net.
The Netherlands taxes as the source state. Since the protocol of 2020, an addition to the treaty, this is a source-state treaty: the country your income comes from may tax it. Article 18 says that this income may be taxed in the Netherlands:
- pensions and annuities arising in the Netherlands;
- payments under Dutch social security legislation.
So the Netherlands simply withholds tax. That is no mistake you fix with a form.
Poland taxes alongside as the country of residence. These are the Polish rates:
- twelve percent up to 120,000 złoty;
- thirty-two percent above that;
- a tax-free allowance of 30,000 złoty, the part of your income on which you pay no tax.
Poland deducts the Dutch tax from the Polish. If you pay more in the Netherlands than Poland would charge, nothing remains in Poland. If you pay less, Poland tops up.
Have that worked out on your amounts, by a tax adviser who knows both countries. The difference sits in the rates of two countries at once.
And this is the dashboard that step lives in. The example shows the plan for Spain; your dashboard shows the plan for Poland.
This is step 2.3 of 34. The other 33 are ready for you, each with the same sources, the same offices and a schedule that keeps track of your dates.
See all 34 steps for PolandWhat you get for € 199
All 34 steps to Poland, 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 Poland
€ 199
one-off · 34 steps
- Pay once, no subscription
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Every step on one list, free
Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for Poland: 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 Poland 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.
That was the move. And once you live there?
Which country may tax your pension once you live in Poland? Is there a favourable regime, a scheme that lowers your tax? And how do you get insured? That depends on where your income comes from. Tick it and you'll see which rules apply to you, with the source.
See the financial conditionsClosing down the Netherlands: all your letters in one go
Moving to Poland 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 € 49
- 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 Poland
Per phase, the articles that are already there. They're written from the same journey and go deeper than what fits above.
- AOW, pension and tax in Poland: the treaty was reversed in 2022The treaty of 2002 placed your pension with Poland. The protocol that entered into force on 30 April 2022 reversed that: the Netherlands may tax your occupational pension and your AOW, and Poland credits the Dutch tax against its own. A wage tax exemption no longer exists here. And your government pension follows your nationality.
- Ulga na powrót: up to 85,528 złoty a year tax free for four years, Dutch citizens includedThe Polish 'return relief' has that name, but it isn't only for Poles: whoever holds the nationality of an EU country and did not live in Poland in the three calendar years before the move pays no Polish income tax for four years on up to 85,528 złoty of salary or profit a year. Not on a pension: that falls outside it.
- Working in Poland: no permit, a degree that counts automatically, and ZUS in three stepsAs a Dutch citizen you work in Poland without a permit, and your Dutch bachelor's or master's degree counts there by operation of law. Whoever starts out self-employed pays no social contributions for the first half year, then two years at a reduced rate, and only then the full amount. The health contribution runs from day one.
- Healthcare in Poland: from the CAK's S1 to the NFZPoland is a treaty country. With a Dutch statutory pension you apply for an S1 form at the CAK, register it at the NFZ office of your province, and are treated as if you were insured there. The Netherlands pays, you pay the treaty contribution, and Poland charges you no premium of its own. The form in your drawer is not yet insurance.
- Car and driving licence in Poland: twelve months for the excise duty, thirty days for the registrationYour car comes along without excise duty if you meet five conditions at once, and you have twelve months after settling for that. But as soon as it stands in Poland, the registration must be lodged within thirty days — otherwise a 500 złoty fine. The driving licence is the easiest part: an EU licence doesn't need exchanging.
- Renting in Poland: the deposit, the notarial contract and the signature for your addressIn Poland a landlord may ask up to twelve months' rent as a deposit on an ordinary rental agreement, and up to six on a najem okazjonalny. That second contract comes with a notarial statement in which you consent to eviction. And without the owner's signature there is no address registration, so no PESEL.
All 15 articles about Poland
- Your pet to Poland: the passport is enough, the dog needs its jab every year
- Your household goods to Poland: no customs, but three exceptions
- Banking and paying in Poland: the free basic account in złoty, and what your Dutch account still does
- PESEL and address registration in Poland: the number everything hangs on
- Residence in Poland: two registrations, two clocks, one order
- Buying a house in Poland: no permit, but the hectare limit
- Your first weeks in Poland: three thirty-day clocks, and one of three months
- Your driving licence in Poland: nothing to exchange, until it expires
- School in Poland: free, without nostrification, and with extra Polish
Also applies to your move
Ready to begin?
The step-by-step plan for Poland: 34 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.