What changes financially when you move to South Africa?
Tick where your income comes from. You then see which rules South Africa 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.
What the Netherlands doesn't let go of
Which Dutch obligation travels with you?
Your AOW accrual stops on departure, repair is possible within one year
This is about the accrual, not the payment. What you've built up until you leave stays yours. But as soon as you're no longer insured in the Netherlands, you build up nothing more, and every year until your AOW age costs 2% of your later AOW. If you already receive AOW, this no longer applies.
For most emigrants the insurance ends on the day of departure. If you keep working in the Netherlands or are posted abroad, you can stay insured. Voluntary insurance with the SVB (the Social Insurance Bank, which pays the AOW) closes the gap, for ten years at most. That is only possible if your application is in within one year of your compulsory insurance ending, and if you were insured for at least a year directly before that. The premium depends on your income and is revised every year. That is why no amount is given here. Put that date in your diary before you go.
- reduction per uninsured year
- 2% of your AOW
- application for voluntary insurance
- no later than 1 year after your insurance ends
- duration of voluntary insurance
- 10 years at most
Source: Algemene Ouderdomswet (General Old Age Pensions Act) — article 13(1) (2% reduction per uninsured calendar year), article 35(1) (voluntary insurance, ten years at most) and article 36(1) (application no later than one year after the compulsory insurance ends) — checked on 2026-09-19
Read the whole storyThe year of departure needs its own tax return
If you emigrate part-way through the year, you live that year partly inside and partly outside the Netherlands. For that there is the M return: a separate return for the year of departure.
This return is often forgotten. A letter only reaches you if your address abroad is correct in the RNI, the register for people who live outside the Netherlands. Put it in your planning for the year after your departure. You can file it online via Mijn Belastingdienst, or otherwise on paper. Expect around three months before you hear back. This return often yields money. That is because the tax credits (reductions on your tax) were calculated over a whole year, while you were liable for contributions for only part of that year.
Your Dutch basic health insurance ends when you deregister
Your basic insurance stops on the day you deregister. A South African medical aid only starts once your acceptance is complete.
There is no treaty route and no S1. So you arrange your cover yourself, and before departure. Bear in mind two things the healthcare article sets out. Waiting periods apply for pre-existing conditions. And whoever joins after 35 pays a late-joiner penalty. So work out the cover before the steps you can no longer undo. Cover the gap between your Dutch end date and your first insured day with a bridging policy: a temporary insurance for that period in between.
Where this comes from: The waiting periods and the late-joiner penalty from the healthcare article, together with the fixed emigration rule that the Zvw ends on the day of deregistration.
Read the whole storyFor inheritance and gifts the Netherlands counts you in for ten more years
The Inheritance Tax Act (Successiewet), the law on inheritance and gift tax, pretends an emigrated Dutch national still lives in the Netherlands for ten years. That applies on death and to gifts.
If you die within ten years of leaving, your heirs pay Dutch inheritance tax, as if you still lived here. What you give away in those years, to your children for example, falls under Dutch gift tax. So review your will and your gift plans before you leave. For a gift in the first year after you leave, this even applies to everyone who lived in the Netherlands, also without Dutch nationality.
- deemed residence
- 10 years
This is not tax advice
These are the rules that apply to your situation. What they add up to is not shown here. South Africa has a source-state treaty with the Netherlands: the country your income comes from may tax it. So the Netherlands keeps taxing your AOW (the Dutch state pension), your pension and your annuity. South Africa largely exempts foreign pensions. So you do not pay twice, but not less either. There is no healthcare treaty. What the rules together mean for you is the work of a tax adviser who knows both countries. Take this list to that conversation.
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 South Africa: 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 South Africa 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.