Denmark · administrative route
Emigrating to Denmark
Denmark asks no visa and no permit — you register a right you already have, and the whole paper journey costs zero kroner. The surprises are where there's no counter: the deposit, the car and a welfare state that cuts just differently from ours. This page shows how the journey runs and where you have to do the sums up front.
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- Kind of journey
- Free movement — register, no application
- Lead time
- About 4 to 5 months, the home sets the pace
- Note
- The car: up to 150% tax, no relocation exemption
Last updated: August 2026
The journey
Five phases, from the car sum to the yellow card
The order is compelling and beyond that there's little to fear: home, residence document, CPR number — and that number opens everything else. The two sums that can hurt, you do in phase 1, at home at the kitchen table.
- 1
Orientation
Two sums, before everything
As an EU citizen you register a right you already have: the residence document is free and for employees ready immediately. In this phase you do the two sums that decide how expensive Denmark becomes for you. The car sum: up to 150% registration tax on the Danish market value, with no relocation exemption — selling in the Netherlands usually wins. And the housing sum: landlords may ask three months' deposit plus three months' rent in advance, up to six months' rent before the key.
- 2
Closing the Netherlands
The familiar list, without the windfalls
Healthcare, AOW, benefits, deregistration, documents — the EU routes work as you hope, but honestly: the windfalls of other destinations are missing here. The Netherlands keeps taxing your pension as source state, and the CAK health contribution for Denmark is at exactly the Dutch level. New is one clock almost nobody knows: whoever takes up employment has eight weeks after the end of the Dutch insurance to join an a-kasse — otherwise your Dutch insurance years don't count.
- 3
The move
One day's drive, no customs
Within the EU there's no declaration for removal goods: Randstad–Copenhagen is one long day's drive, with the ferry or over the Great Belt bridge. The car you do as you decided in phase 1 — sell, or export with BPM refund and the thirteen-week clock that comes with it. The pet travels on the EU passport; for dogs there are two Danish rules you have to know: thirteen banned breeds with reversed burden of proof for crossbreeds, and registration plus compulsory liability insurance within four weeks.
- 4
Registration in Denmark
Home → document → CPR → everything
The order is compelling: no CPR number without a home address, and without a CPR number you don't administratively exist. After that it goes fast and free: the EU residence document at SIRI, the CPR registration at the Citizen Service (the whole family, in person), MitID and the legally compulsory Digital Post, the yellow health card that comes by itself — and the tax card, which you apply for a month before your first working day. Whoever forgets that last one sees their first salary halved by the emergency rate of 8% plus 55%.
- 5
Arrival
Thirty days for the car, eight weeks for the a-kasse
You exist — now it's about the system behind it. The car has thirty days to be on Danish plates. Unemployment insurance is voluntary, so the a-kasse is your action, not your employer's. The municipality guarantees childcare within three months, school is free, and so are Danish lessons — for three and a half years. And know where your own money goes: the dentist is largely uninsured there, and medicines run via a staircase system of which you pay the first good thousand kroner yourself.
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 Denmark journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan — with the deadlines, the counters and the sources.
Step 1.2 of your plan
Do the car sum before you decide anything else
- Lead time
- an evening of calculating
- Costs
- none
On import of your own car Denmark levies the full registreringsafgift over the Danish market value: 25% over the first bracket, 85% over the second and 150% over everything above that, plus a CO2 surcharge per gram. There is no exemption for removal goods — not for EU immigrants either. For an ordinary Dutch family car that runs into thousands to tens of thousands of euros.
Against that stands one thing: on export the Netherlands refunds the remaining BPM. That refund almost never covers the Danish levy, but it makes selling in the Netherlands extra attractive. So do this sum now, with your own number plate — for most households the outcome is: sell the car here, and buy (or lease) one there. Electric driving softens the sum: zero-emission cars pay only 40% of the calculated tax in 2026, with a hefty extra deduction.
This is step 1.2 of 34. The other 33 are ready for you — each with the same sources, the same counters and a planning that watches your dates.
What it costs
A rough indication for your situation
A few short questions, and you get a range instead of an amount. That's deliberate: an exact figure would suggest a precision nobody has.
Count on a total of
€ 4.000 – € 12.400
Where does that difference come from?
- De eerste maanden€ 4.000 – € 12.000
Open the breakdown below: there you'll find per item where the upper and the lower limit come from.
- Aanvraag en papieren
- € 0 – € 80
- De verhuizing
- € 60 – € 250
- De eerste maanden
- € 4.000 – € 12.000
View the itemsPer item the amount, the source and whether it's a rate or an estimate
Aanvraag en papieren
- Akten en eventuele vertalingen(estimate)€ 0 – € 80
De verhuizing
- Reis(estimate)€ 60 – € 250
De eerste maanden
- De eerste maanden(estimate)€ 4.000 – € 12.000
De grootste post van deze corridor: verhuurders mogen wettelijk drie maanden borg plus drie maanden huur vooruit vragen — tot zes maanden huur vóór de sleutel (lejeloven). Tel daarbij de dubbele lasten in de zoekmaanden, een prijspeil boven het Nederlandse, en — voor wie gaat werken — het noodtarief van 8% + 55% dat de werkgever inhoudt zolang de belastingkaart niet rond is (terug bij de jaarafrekening, maar het drukt op de cashflow van precies deze maanden).
And if you buy a house?
This calculation assumes renting: the first months include deposit and rent in advance.
If you buy, count on 1 to 3% of the purchase price on top of this amount. On a home of € 250,000 that's € 2.500 to € 7.500.
Denemarken is een van de goedkoopste landen om te kopen: de tinglysningsafgift (registratie van de akte) is 1.750 kroon vast plus 0,6% van de koopsom, en een advocaat rekent doorgaans tussen de 10.000 en 25.000 kroon. Er is geen overdrachtsbelasting zoals wij die kennen. Reken op 1 tot 2,5% in totaal — een fractie van wat Spanje of België kost.
Note: buying isn't simply allowed here
Kopen mag niet zomaar vanuit Nederland. Wie geen vaste woonplaats in Denemarken heeft, heeft toestemming van het ministerie van Justitie nodig. EU-burgers die zich in Denemarken vestigen en er hun hoofdverblijf hebben, kunnen doorgaans zonder die toestemming kopen. Voor een zomerhuis gelden strengere regels: daar wordt in de regel vijf jaar eerder verblijf in Denemarken voor gevraagd.
An order of magnitude based on averages, not a quote. The real amounts depend on your occupation, your route, the season and dozens of choices you still have to make.
Rates checked on 20 August 2026.
Your complete, personal cost picture — with your route, your documents and your deadlines — you get in Vertrekklaar.
That was the move. And once you live there?
Who may tax your pension once you live in Denmark, is there a favourable regime, and how do you become insured? That depends on where your income comes from. Tick it and you see which rules apply to you — with the source.
See the financial conditionsThe departure guide
Five mails, and you see your whole journey
Not ready to start yet? Then we'll send you the departure guide for Denmark: five mails in a week and a half, with the order, the pitfalls and the real costs. After that only a short update when something in Denmark really changes — at most one a month, no newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
Read on
The knowledge base on Denmark
Per phase, the articles that are already there. They're written from the same journey and go deeper than what fits above.
Registration in Denmark
- 3 min
CPR, MitID and Digital Post: the order that opens everything
In Denmark everything hangs on one number. The CPR number opens healthcare, the bank, tax and school — but the number itself waits for a residential address and for the EU residence document from SIRI. This is how the chain works, in the order that cannot be otherwise, and with the duty to read that the Netherlands doesn't know.
Updated 28 August 2026
- 3 min
Your first weeks in Denmark: the order, the money and the pitfalls
Home, residence document, CPR, MitID, tax card — the Danish chain has a fixed order, and three money matters you want to know in advance: the deposit of up to six months' rent, the emergency rate of 8% + 55% if your tax card isn't sorted, and the trick that your Dutch account can temporarily be your NemKonto.
Updated 21 August 2026
Arrival
- 3 min
Tax in Denmark: high, but predictable
The Danish system is higher than the Dutch one, but holds no surprises for whoever sets the advance assessment right: 8% AM-bidrag on everything, then state and municipal tax. Meanwhile the Netherlands keeps taxing your AOW and pension — the treaty of 1996 tipped to source-state taxation in 2018, and old guides still tell the old story.
Updated 28 August 2026
- 2 min
Buying a house in Denmark: a cooling-off period exists — but it costs 1 per cent
Denmark regulates the home purchase with three peculiarities you need to know: as an EU citizen you may buy a year-round home without a permit as soon as you really live there (a holiday home not), after the purchase agreement you have six working days' cooling-off but withdrawing costs 1% of the purchase price, and the registration runs entirely digitally via the tinglysning. After that the tax office collects the two property taxes automatically along with your monthly tax.
Updated 28 August 2026
- 3 min
Working in Denmark: the a-kasse and the system without a minimum wage
Danish unemployment insurance is voluntary: no a-kasse membership, no benefit. Whoever wants their Dutch insurance years to count has only eight weeks after leaving. And there is no statutory minimum wage — wages are set in collective agreements, and that changes what you look at in a job offer.
Updated 20 August 2026
- 2 min
Healthcare in Denmark: free GP, expensive dentist
The Danish healthcare system has no premium, no excess and no policy: whoever is registered is covered. But the system cuts differently from the Dutch one in three places — the dentist you largely pay yourself, medicines run via a ladder system, and physio is only subsidised with a referral. What that means, and what Sygeforsikring danmark has to do with it.
Updated 20 August 2026
Leaving the Netherlands — for every destination
- 2 min
Keeping a bank account and DigiD: the two lines you never cut
After your deregistration you still need the Netherlands for years — for the M return, refunds and your pension. Within the EU your bank account is a right, towards Australia a favour from the bank. And your DigiD you arrange before departure, not after.
Updated 11 August 2026
- 3 min
The protective assessment: the bill that travels with you, and that never expires for one item
On emigration the Netherlands imposes an assessment on your pension, your annuity and your substantial shareholding that you don't have to pay — as long as you do nothing that makes it collectable. For pension and annuity it usually lapses after ten years. For a substantial shareholding it doesn't: that one remains valid indefinitely.
Updated 27 August 2026
- 2 min
Emigrating with children after a divorce: the consent that comes before everything
With joint custody you can't just go abroad with the children — you need the consent of the other parent, or substitute consent from the court. What the court weighs, and why leaving without consent is legally child abduction.
Updated 11 August 2026
- 3 min
Emigrating on early retirement: the CAK route is expected to close as of 1 November 2026
Whoever moves to the EU or Switzerland with a Dutch pension arranges their healthcare via the CAK. That door is closing to a crack: as expected, from 1 November only new applicants with AOW, Anw, WAO, WIA or Wajong will be admitted. Early retirement and RVU fall outside it — whoever is already a customer keeps their rights.
Updated 16 August 2026
- 2 min
The M form: the tax return for the year in which you emigrated
For the year of your departure you lived partly inside and partly outside the Netherlands, and a separate return goes with that. Nowadays it can be done online — but you have to think of it yourself, because an invitation rarely comes by itself.
Updated 9 August 2026
- 2 min
Your AOW accrual stops on departure — and you have one year to repair that
Every year outside the Netherlands costs you 2% AOW (the Dutch state pension), for life. The SVB has a voluntary continuation that closes that gap — but signing up is only possible in the first year after departure, and almost everyone misses that deadline.
Updated 11 August 2026
- 3 min
Your Dutch pension abroad: what comes along, and who levies
The AOW (the Dutch state pension) travels fully to the EU and to Australia — the latter thanks to a treaty from 2001. Your company pension too, but *where* you pay on it depends on the tax treaty, and the exemption you arrange yourself.
Updated 11 August 2026
- 3 min
Cancelling your health insurance without a gap
Your Dutch basic insurance is tied to living or working in the Netherlands and stops being a given on emigration. The art is to have the end date match your new cover — and to know which route belongs to your situation.
Updated 28 August 2026
- 2 min
Taking medicines across the border: certificates, supply and the 90-day ceiling
For medicines under the Opium Act you need a certificate — and the Dutch system only carries you for three months. What you arrange with the CAK, what Australia wants to see at the border, and why finding a local doctor simply belongs to your first weeks.
Updated 11 August 2026
- 9 min
Partner comes along without a job of their own: deregistering, healthcare, AOW and the house
Your partner has a job, a visa or a right of residence there; you come along without a job of your own. Administratively you're then no passenger: the deregistration, the end of your health insurance and your AOW accrual apply to you separately. What you get back if you arrange it well, what it costs if you let it slide — and why "just staying registered" isn't an option.
Updated 7 September 2026
- 2 min
Stopping allowances on emigration: do it yourself, and in time
Housing allowance, healthcare allowance, childcare allowance and child budget don't stop by themselves on the day you leave. Whoever lets them run gets a reclaim months later — this is what you arrange per allowance.
Updated 9 August 2026
- 3 min
Deregistering with the municipality: when exactly, and what stops then
Deregistering from the BRP is only possible from five days before departure, and is compulsory as soon as you're away for more than eight months a year. What stops at that moment, what stays, and which piece of paper you have to ask for right away.
Updated 9 August 2026
- 6 min
When does your pension stay taxed in the Netherlands? The three pots and the three conditions
"Your pension is taxed in your new country of residence" is right by approximation and not in the details. Your AOW, your company pension and your government pension each follow a rule of their own, and with the company pension the Netherlands can still levy if three conditions apply at once. This article explains which three, and which four questions you have to answer for your own situation.
Updated 27 August 2026
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