Look inside
The plan for Luxembourg, from the inside
These are all 29 steps of the Luxembourg journey, exactly as they appear in your personal plan — with the lead time and the costs next to them. Not a brochure: this is the file that feeds the platform. Pick another country below if you're heading elsewhere.
For which country?
Every country has its own steps, its own order and its own clocks. Switch as often as you like.
- Steps
- 29
- Phases
- 5
- Official sources
- 38
- Only for your situation
- 7
Phase 1
6 steps
Orientation
Four hours' drive, no border, and yet a country with its own clocks: eight days to report your arrival, three months for the registration. And the treaty from 1968 sends your pension and your AOW to Luxembourg, where you declare them yourself.
- 1.1
Being allowed to stay is not the same as being reported
- Lead time
- reading step
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 1.2
Know how tax and healthcare work there
- Lead time
- an evening of research
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 1.3
Explore the region, and count the languages and the housing costs in
- Lead time
- weeks, preferably with an exploratory trip
- Costs
- an exploratory trip is a day's drive
- 1.4
Map out what it's going to cost
- Lead time
- 1-2 hours with the calculator
- Costs
- none
- 1.5
The family conversation
- Lead time
- weeks, not hours
- Costs
- none
- 1.6
Choose your target date
- Lead time
- decision moment
- Costs
- none
Phase 2
8 steps
Closing the Netherlands
This is where the money sits: the wage tax exemption for your pension and your AOW, because both go to Luxembourg — and there you declare them yourself from now on.
- 2.1
Gather your basic documents
- Lead time
- 1-4 weeks
- Costs
- fees per extract, tens of euros in total
1 official source
- 2.2
Arrange the healthcare transition
- Lead time
- apply 6 weeks before departure
- Costs
- the treaty contribution replaces your Dutch premium
2 official sources
- 2.3
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
3 official sources
- 2.4
Deregister and tell the SVB
- Lead time
- deregistering is possible from 5 days before departure; the whole takes 4-8 weeks
- Costs
- limited — cancellation costs per contract
2 official sources
- 2.5
Partner comes along without a job of their own
- Lead time
- an evening together, then a few arrangements
- Costs
- none — the consequences are in the article
2 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 2.6
Partly staying in the Netherlands: the eight-month rule
- Lead time
- one decision, before you fix anything else
- Costs
- none
4 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 2.7
The house in the Netherlands: sell, let or keep
- Lead time
- one conversation with the mortgage lender and one with a tax adviser
- Costs
- advisory hours; when letting possibly an interest surcharge from the bank
2 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 2.8
Children who stay in the Netherlands: DUO, healthcare and the house
- Lead time
- an evening, and then one report a year
- Costs
- none
1 official source
Only if this applies to you
Phase 3
5 steps
The move
One day's drive, no customs, and one clock of six months for the car — with a customs sticker you need anyway, even within the EU.
- 3.1
Choose your form of move and ask for quotes
- Lead time
- quotes 2-3 weeks; the drive itself a day
- Costs
- according to your moving choices
- 3.2
The car: six months, a customs sticker and a stamp of 50 euros
- Lead time
- decision moment; the registration itself three counters in a few weeks
- Costs
- stamp, inspection, insurance and road tax
1 official source
Only if this applies to you
- 3.3
Pet along: chip, rabies jab and the EU pet passport
- Lead time
- start at least three weeks before departure
- Costs
- per animal — chip, vaccination and passport at the vet
1 official source
Only if this applies to you
- 3.4
Arrange your home before you leave, because the eight-day report asks for a lease
- Lead time
- weeks to months — the housing market is tight
- Costs
- falls under "the first months" in your budget
1 official source
- 3.5
Tell the Dutch tax authority: the M return and the provisional assessment
- Lead time
- an evening
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
Phase 4
5 steps
Registration in Luxembourg
Two counters at the commune — eight days and three months — and then the CNS and the tax office, because in Luxembourg you declare your pension yourself from now on.
- 4.1
Report your arrival at the commune, within eight days
- Lead time
- one visit
- Costs
- fees per commune
1 official source
- 4.2
Make the registration declaration, within three months
- Lead time
- one visit, the certificate straight away or by post
- Costs
- fees per commune
2 official sources
- 4.3
Register with your S1 at the CNS
- Lead time
- by post or at the counter; the card within weeks
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 4.4
Open an account and arrange your digital access
- Lead time
- days
- Costs
- account costs per month
1 official source
- 4.5
Register with the tax office and arrange your class and your advance payments
- Lead time
- a letter, then an annual return
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
Phase 5
5 steps
Arrival
The licence stays, but from now on you renew it here. And anyone may buy — with 7 percent duties and a credit of 40,000 euros per person for whoever is going to live there themselves.
- 5.1
The driving licence: nothing to exchange, but do have it registered
- Lead time
- reading step; the registration a form by post
- Costs
- registration free; exchange 30 euros
1 official source
- 5.2
Living and buying: free, with 7 percent duties and the Bëllegen Akt
- Lead time
- weeks to months
- Costs
- 7 percent registration duties minus the tax credit, plus the notary
2 official sources
- 5.3
After five years: permanent residence
- Lead time
- one application, after five years
- Costs
- fees
1 official source
- 5.4
School for the children
- Lead time
- enrolment runs per commune
- Costs
- public education is free; the private international schools are not
Only if this applies to you
- 5.5
Landed
- Lead time
- the moment itself
- Costs
- none
7 of these steps aren't always there. They appear only when your answers call them up — a pet, a car, children staying behind. That's the difference between a plan and a checklist in which you have to work out yourself what applies.
Look inside
This is what one step of your plan looks like
Not a brochure but the real thing: this is one of the steps of the Luxembourg journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan — with the deadlines, the counters 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
The treaty places your occupational pension and your AOW exclusively with Luxembourg. Apply to the Dutch tax authority for the wage tax exemption with a Luxembourg certificate of residence, for both — otherwise your fund keeps withholding and you only get it back after a year. An annuity falls under the same residual article and comes along.
The government pension is the exception: the Netherlands may tax that, and unlike in most treaties a Luxembourg passport doesn't help against it. Luxembourg exempts it, but counts it for the rate on the rest.
On the Luxembourg side nobody withholds anything on a foreign pension. You file a return every year with the Administration des contributions directes, with the pension statement from your fund and the SVB attached, and then pay four advance payments a year: on 10 March, 10 June, 10 September and 10 December. The rate rises progressively to 42 percent, with a surcharge for the employment fund; which tax class you get — 1, 1a above sixty-four, or 2 as a couple — determines the scale.
This is step 2.3 of 29. The other 28 are ready for you — each with the same sources, the same counters and a planning that watches your dates.
And what you don't see here
This page shows the content. What a page can't show is the work the platform does for you afterwards:
- The clocks that start running the moment you begin, and a nudge at the moment something is asked of you — not earlier.
- Your documents in one place, with their expiry dates watched, so nothing lapses while you wait for something else.
- The ticking off, together with your partner on the same journey.
- The steps that drop out or appear based on your answers, so your plan holds only what really applies to you.
Ready to start on Luxembourg?
All 29 steps, set to your situation and with the deadlines watched. € 199 once, no subscription.
The departure guide
Five mails, and you see your whole journey
Not ready to start yet? Then we'll send you the departure guide for Luxembourg: 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 Luxembourg really changes — at most one a month, no newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
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