Leaving from Belgium?To the Belgian plan →See the plan for Belgians moving to Czechia →This plan is for people leaving the Netherlands.
Czechia · No visa required
Emigrating to Czechia
You need no permit for Czechia. You do report to the Foreign Police within thirty days, and almost everyone misses that: the registration certificate is voluntary. Your pension does well here. A treaty from 1974 places your AOW and occupational pension with Czechia, which exempts pensions from a mandatory scheme up to 806,400 crowns a year.
€ 199 one-off · 32 steps · no subscription
- Kind of journey
- Administrative: one mandatory report, a voluntary certificate
- The clock
- Report to the Foreign Police within 30 days
- Note
- Pension exempt up to 806,400 crowns, but not your government pension
Last updated: 14 October 2026
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Five phases, from the reporting duty to the land registry
This route has few counters and one trap. Because the registration certificate is voluntary, it's easy to overlook the report that is mandatory. The fixed points are the report within thirty days, the S1 form (the proof that the Netherlands pays for your care) for a health insurer of your choice, the registration certificate you need anyway, and the car: Czech plates straight after arrival, without excise duty. On top of that comes the treaty of 1974, never reversed. Together with the Czech exemption it yields a pension that is taxed nowhere up to 806,400 crowns a year.
- Orientation
A voluntary certificate, a mandatory report, an old treaty
In this phase you learn the rules that shape your planning. You may live there without a permit, and the registration certificate is up to you. The thirty-day reporting duty at the Foreign Police is mandatory. You also learn what the treaty of 1974 does: it places your pension and your AOW exclusively with Czechia. For that you do apply for the wage tax exemption here, so the Netherlands stops withholding tax. And you see what Czechia itself exempts: pensions from a mandatory scheme, up to thirty-six times the minimum wage. Explore the region in winter too, because the language and the cold help decide where you'll live well.Read more
- Closing the Netherlands
The wage tax exemption, and the question which part Czechia exempts
In this phase you work through the familiar list, in a favourable variant. Apply for the wage tax exemption for your occupational pension and your AOW, because both go exclusively to Czechia. Your government pension stays Dutch, unless you're also Czech. Have a tax adviser work out which part of your pension income falls under the Czech exemption of 806,400 crowns. Your AOW certainly does, your occupational pension probably. Further, you apply for the S1 at the CAK six weeks before departure, and you inform the SVB in time. The eight-month rule, partly staying resident in the Netherlands, is also a real option: Czechia is a day's drive away.Read more
- The move
No customs, no excise duty, but Czech plates
In this phase you move by road, in one long day, without customs and without an inventory. The car comes along without excise duty. There's no exemption to apply for, and it doesn't matter how long it has been yours. You do put it on Czech plates straight after arrival, after an inspection, for 800 crowns. An old car pays an environmental levy; have that checked before departure. Your pet needs only a chip, a jab and the EU pet passport.Read more
- Registration in Czechia
First report, then the S1, then the certificate, then the bank
In this phase you register, in a fixed order. First you report to the Foreign Police, within thirty days and free of charge. Then you take the S1 to a Czech health insurer of your choice. There you're supplementarily insured, at the expense of the Netherlands. Then you apply for the registration certificate, with that proof of insurance attached. It's voluntary, costs 200 crowns and is valid for ten years, but the bank and the municipality ask for it. Only then do you open the account and set up the bank identity: with it you log in to the authorities using your bank details.Read more
- Arrival
The licence stays, the land registry decides
In this phase you settle your driving licence, possibly a home of your own, and later your permanent residence. An EU driving licence doesn't need exchanging. Anyone may buy, regardless of nationality, and without exception for agricultural land. That's exactly why everything hangs on the land registry. You're only the owner once the purchase is entered there, not on signing. So the money runs through an escrow account, and the land registry extract is checked beforehand. 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 Czechia, 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 apply for the exemption
- Lead time
- one good conversation, then an application of weeks
- Costs
- advisory hours — depending on your situation
In this step you work out which country taxes your pension and your AOW. That decides what you keep net.
Czechia taxes, not the Netherlands. The treaty places your occupational pension and your AOW exclusively with Czechia. You do have to make sure yourself that your pension fund stops withholding.
Here's how to go about it:
- Get a Czech certificate of residence: the proof that you live in Czechia for tax purposes.
- Use it to apply to the Dutch tax authority for the wage tax exemption.
- If you don't, your fund keeps withholding and you only get the money back after a year.
The government pension is the exception. That is a pension from a job with the government. The Netherlands may tax that pension, unless you're a resident and a national of Czechia, so you also hold Czech nationality.
Czechia exempts a large part. Czech law exempts regularly paid pensions from a mandatory scheme up to thirty-six times the minimum wage. In 2026 the minimum wage stands at 22,400 crowns a month. So the limit lies at 806,400 crowns a year.
- Your AOW falls under this exemption.
- Whether your Dutch occupational pension counts as a "foreign mandatory insurance of the same kind" is the question your tax adviser has to answer.
- Whatever comes out above the limit falls into the Czech brackets of fifteen and twenty-three percent.
And this is the dashboard that step lives in. The example shows the plan for Spain; your dashboard shows the plan for Czechia.
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 CzechiaWhat you get for € 199
All 34 steps to Czechia, 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 Czechia
€ 199
one-off · 34 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 Czechia cost? Work it out →
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Every step on one list, free
Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for Czechia: 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 Czechia 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 Czechia? 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 Czechia 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 Czechia
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 Czechia: a treaty from 1974 and an exemption that stacksThe treaty with Czechoslovakia from 1974 still applies and places your occupational pension and your AOW exclusively with Czechia. Czechia in turn exempts pensions from a mandatory scheme up to thirty-six times the minimum wage — in 2026 806,400 crowns. Together that means: up to that limit your pension is taxed nowhere, provided you know which part of it falls under it. Your government pension falls outside it.
- Working in Czechia: no permit, a trade licence for 1,000 crowns, and the paušál you must choose on day oneAs a Dutch citizen you work in Czechia without a permit. Whoever starts out self-employed registers a free trade for 1,000 crowns and can opt for the paušální režim: one monthly amount for tax, pension and health contributions, 9,162 crowns in the first band. But only if you register no later than the day you start. A Dutch degree is not recognised automatically there.
- Healthcare in Czechia: from the CAK's S1 to the health insurerCzechia is a treaty country. With a Dutch statutory pension you apply for an S1 form at the CAK, hand it in at a Czech health insurer of your choice, and are supplementarily insured there at the expense of the Netherlands — with the right to full care. The certificate is valid at most five years at a time, and the form in your drawer is not yet insurance.
- Car and driving licence in Czechia: no excise duty, but Czech platesCzechia charges no excise duty on a car you bring from another EU country. What there is: Czech plates once you live there, an inspection, and 800 crowns in fees. The driving licence is the easiest part: an EU licence doesn't need exchanging, and if you want to anyway, it costs 200 crowns.
- Renting in Czechia: three months' deposit, and the fixed-term contract you can't simply cancelA Czech landlord may ask at most three months' rent as a deposit, and must return it within thirty days of the end. The pitfall is in the fixed-term contract: as a tenant you can only terminate it if your circumstances change substantially. And the owner who signs must be the same as in the land register, or the contract won't count as proof of accommodation.
- Your pet to Czechia: chip, passport, and since July 2026 the central dog registerWithin the EU your dog or cat travels to Czechia with a chip, a valid rabies vaccination and the EU pet passport. Once there, Czech law applies: a rabies jab only counts if the dog is chipped, and since July 2026 your dog must be entered in the central dog register at the next jab at the latest. The municipality can charge up to 1,500 crowns of dog tax a year.
All 14 articles about Czechia
- Your household goods to Czechia: no customs, and the car that only gets plates after six months' residence
- Banking and paying in Czechia: the basic account, the rodné číslo and the bank that also lets you into the government
- Rodné číslo and the reporting duty in Czechia: the number the police won't give you
- Residence in Czechia: one mandatory report, one voluntary certificate
- Buying a house in Czechia: no restriction, so everything hangs on the land registry
- Your first weeks in Czechia: one thirty-day clock, and a chain that hangs on one voluntary paper
- Your driving licence in Czechia: nothing to exchange, but do it before it expires
- School in Czechia: compulsory after ninety days, and language support for twenty-four months
Also applies to your move
Ready to begin?
The step-by-step plan for Czechia: 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.