What changes financially when you move to Singapore?
Tick where your income comes from. You then see which rules Singapore and the Netherlands apply to your situation — which country may tax, which schemes exist and how you become insured. With the source, so you can check it.
This applies to everyone who moves. Tick above what applies to you, and the rest is added.
Health insurance
How do you become insured, and what do you pay for it?
No CAK route — your own policy is the system
Singapore is not on the CAK's list of treaty countries: the Netherlands has no agreements about your healthcare there, your basic insurance ends on emigration, and the CAK says it itself — take out your own insurance for yourself and the family members who move with you.
That applies to whoever works and to whoever comes along retired or on a Dependant's Pass. Plan the transition so that no uninsured week falls between the Dutch policy and the new one.
MediShield Life and the healthcare subsidies are for citizens and PRs
MediShield Life covers "all Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents" against large hospital bills. A pass holder is not covered and pays the full rate in the public hospitals.
The system is excellent and fully accessible, but for you uninsured and unsubsidised. A policy via the employer or an international insurer is therefore not a top-up but the base.
What the Netherlands doesn't let go of
Which Dutch obligation travels with you?
Your AOW accrual stops on departure — repairing is possible, within one year
This is about the accrual, not the payment. As soon as you are no longer insured in the Netherlands you build up nothing more, and every uninsured calendar year up to your AOW age costs 2% of your later AOW. If you already receive AOW, this no longer plays a role.
Voluntary continued insurance with the SVB closes the gap, for a maximum of ten years, but only if the application is in within one year of the end of your compulsory insurance. Precisely in Singapore — without CPF — this weighs more heavily than elsewhere. The contribution depends on your income; that is why no amount is given here.
- reduction per uninsured year
- 2% of your AOW
- application for voluntary insurance
- at most 1 year after the end of your insurance
- duration of voluntary insurance
- at most 10 years
Source: General Old Age Pensions Act — article 13 paragraph 1 (reduction of 2% per uninsured calendar year), article 35 paragraph 1 (voluntary insurance, at most ten years) and article 36 paragraph 1 (application at most one year after the end of compulsory insurance) — checked on 2026-10-05
Read the whole storyAllowances stop when you leave
Dutch healthcare allowance, housing allowance and the child-related budget stop on emigration to Singapore.
Set the cancellation in motion yourself to avoid clawbacks, and work the loss into the family budget before you go.
Where this comes from: The stop list from the knowledge article on stopping allowances on emigration.
Read the whole storyThis is not tax advice
These are the rules that apply to your situation, not their outcome. Singapore is a double story for a Dutch national: the tax treaty from 1971 allocates your pension and your AOW to Singapore, which taxes neither — but only for what you also receive there, and without anything being built up for you or exported at the single person's rate. What the rules together mean for you is the work of a tax adviser who knows both sides. Take this list with you to that conversation.
Still deciding between countries? Put the rules of two or three countries side by side
And then the journey itself
Knowing which rules apply is the first half. The second is applying them in time: in the right order, with the deadlines watched and the documents at hand.
Five mails, and you see your whole journey
Not ready to start yet? Then we'll send you the departure guide for Singapore: five mails in a week and a half, with the order, the pitfalls and the real costs. After that one question about where your plans stand, and beyond that only a short update when something in Singapore really changes — at most one a month, no newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.