What changes financially when you move to Uruguay?
Tick where your income comes from. You then see which rules Uruguay and the Netherlands apply to your situation: which country may tax you, which schemes exist and how you get insured. With the source, so you can check it yourself.
This applies to everyone who moves. Tick above what applies to you, and the rest will appear.
Which country may tax
Which part of your income may your new country of residence tax?
After more than 183 days in a calendar year you're a resident
If you're in Uruguay for more than 183 days in a calendar year, you're a tax resident there. Whoever has the centre of their interests in Uruguay is a resident too.
Short absences of up to 30 days count as days in Uruguay, according to the DGI. The law assumes your interests are in Uruguay if your spouse and your minor children live there. Without a treaty you can thus count as a resident in two countries.
- tax resident
- after more than 183 days in a calendar year
- short absence
- up to 30 days counts along
Health insurance
How do you get insured, and what do you pay for it?
At ASSE healthcare is free below an income limit, above it you pay a cuota
At ASSE you join with your identity document, your residencia or proof that your application is running, and the income of your household. Below an income limit healthcare is free; above it you pay a monthly cuota.
With the cuota you pay no co-payments per visit. If you work in Uruguay, your healthcare runs through FONASA, the national health fund. Whoever has no residencia can only go to ASSE with a cuota.
- below the income limit
- free
What the Netherlands doesn't let go of
Which Dutch obligation travels with you?
Your AOW build-up stops when you leave, repair is possible within a year
Whoever goes to live outside the Netherlands is usually no longer insured for the AOW and the Anw. Every year you're not insured, you later get 2 percent less AOW.
This is about the build-up, not the payment. What you built up until you leave stays. With voluntary insurance at the SVB you close the gap, for at most ten years. The application has to be in within one year after your insurance ends. That applies to each of a couple separately.
- reduction per uninsured year
- 2% of your AOW
- application voluntary insurance
- within 1 year
Source: General Old Age Pensions Act (AOW), article 13 (reduction of 2% for every uninsured calendar year), article 35 (voluntary insurance for at most ten years) and article 36 (application at the latest one year after the end of the compulsory insurance) — checked on 2026-10-15
Read the whole storyYour Dutch basic insurance ends on deregistration
Your basic insurance stops on the day you deregister. Free or through FONASA you only get into ASSE in Uruguay with your residencia or proof that your application is running; without that only against a cuota.
Without the CAK there's no safety net. If you put off the insurance question until after the move, an insurer can refuse you or exclude things. So arrange a bridging policy first, and only then take steps you can't reverse. Make sure there isn't a day between the end date in the Netherlands and your first insured day.
Where this comes from: The list of treaty countries for healthcare (no CAK route), the fixed emigration rule that the Zvw ends on deregistration, and ASSE's rule: free or through FONASA with a residencia or a running application, without that only against a monthly cuota.
Read the whole storyThis is not tax advice
These are the rules that apply to your situation. What they add up to is not shown here. With Uruguay the three treaties each turn out differently. There's no tax treaty: the Netherlands keeps taxing your AOW, your pension and your annuity, and you get no tax credit. Uruguay taxes income from Uruguay, and of foreign income since 2026 only capital income: interest, dividend, rent and capital gains; the law doesn't name a Dutch pension. For new residents there's been a regime for that foreign capital income since 2026. There is a social security treaty: even a single person keeps the full AOW. And there's no healthcare treaty: no CAK, but ASSE or a mutualista after arrival. Which combination you have decides your net monthly income. Take this list to a tax adviser who knows both countries.
Still deciding between countries? Put the rules of two or three countries side by side
Then actually doing it
Knowing which rules apply is the first half. The second is applying them in time: in the right order, without missing a deadline, and with your documents at hand.
Every step on one list, free
Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for Uruguay: 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 Uruguay change, you'll hear about it. After that we ask once where your plans stand, and now and then we send one thing that fits your moment. No newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.