Czechia · administrative route
Emigrating to Czechia
As an EU citizen you live in Czechia without a permit, and the registration certificate is voluntary — which is exactly why almost everyone misses the one obligation there is: reporting to the Foreign Police within thirty days. Alongside, a pension picture few destinations can match, provided you know which part of your pension falls under it: a treaty from 1974 that places your occupational pension and your AOW exclusively with Czechia, and a Czech law that exempts pensions from a mandatory scheme up to 806,400 crowns a year. This page shows how it really works.
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- Kind of journey
- Administrative — one report, a voluntary certificate
- The clock
- Report to the Foreign Police within 30 days
- Note
- Pension exempt up to 806,400 crowns — your government pension not
Last updated: September 2026
The journey
Five phases, from the reporting duty to the land registry
A route with few counters and one trap: that the voluntary certificate makes the mandatory report invisible. The report within thirty days, the S1 to a health insurer of your choice, the registration certificate you need anyway, the car within thirty days without excise duty — and the treaty of 1974, never reversed, which together with the Czech exemption yields a pension that is taxed nowhere up to 806,400 crowns a year.
- 1
Orientation
A voluntary certificate, a mandatory report, an old treaty
You may live there without a permit, and the registration certificate is up to you. The thirty-day reporting duty at the Foreign Police isn't. In this phase you learn what the treaty of 1974 does — pension and AOW exclusively with Czechia, with the wage tax exemption you do apply for here — and what Czechia itself exempts: pensions from a mandatory scheme up to thirty-six times the minimum wage. And you explore the region in winter, because the language and the cold are settlement factors here.
- 2
Closing the Netherlands
The wage tax exemption, and the question which part Czechia exempts
The familiar list with the 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 mix falls under the Czech exemption of 806,400 crowns — your AOW certainly, your occupational pension probably. Further: the S1 at the CAK six weeks before departure, the SVB in time, and the eight-month rule as a real option a day's drive away.
- 3
The move
No customs, no excise duty, but thirty days for the car
By road, in one long day, without customs and without an inventory. The car comes along without excise duty — no exemption to apply for, no condition about how long it was yours — but the registration must be within thirty days, after an inspection, for 800 crowns. An old car pays an environmental levy; have that checked before departure. The pet needs only chip, jab and the EU pet passport.
- 4
Registration in Czechia
First report, then the S1, then the certificate, then the bank
The order is fixed. First the report at the Foreign Police, within thirty days, free. Then the S1 to a Czech health insurer of your choice, where you're supplementarily insured at the expense of the Netherlands. Then the registration certificate — voluntary, 200 crowns, ten years — with that proof of insurance attached, because the bank and the municipality ask for it. And only then the account and the bank identity for the authorities.
- 5
Arrival
The licence stays, the land registry decides
An EU driving licence doesn't need exchanging. Anyone may buy, regardless of nationality and without exception for agricultural land — and that's exactly why everything hangs on the land registry: you're only the owner on entry, not on signing, so the money runs through an escrow account and the extract is checked beforehand. After five years you apply for permanent residence.
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 Czechia 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 Czechia. Apply to the Dutch tax authority for the wage tax exemption with a Czech certificate of residence, otherwise your fund keeps withholding and you only get it back after a year.
The government pension is the exception: the Netherlands may tax that, unless you're a resident and a national of Czechia.
On the Czech side the law exempts regularly paid pensions from a mandatory scheme up to thirty-six times the minimum wage — in 2026 that is 806,400 crowns a year, because the minimum wage stands at 22,400 crowns. Your AOW falls under that. 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 brackets of fifteen and twenty-three percent.
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.
See all 29 steps for CzechiaWhat 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
€ 1.900 – € 5.100
Where does that difference come from?
- The first months€ 1.800 – € 4.500
Below you'll find per item where the upper and the lower limit come from.
- Aanvraag en papieren
- € 35 – € 200
- De verhuizing
- € 40 – € 200
- De eerste maanden
- € 1.800 – € 4.700
Every item, one by onePer item the amount, the source and whether it's a rate or an estimate
Aanvraag en papieren
- Report and registration certificate€ 5 – € 30
- Certificates, model forms and the sworn translator(estimate)€ 30 – € 150
De verhuizing
- The journey(estimate)€ 40 – € 200
De eerste maanden
- The first months(estimate)€ 1.800 – € 4.500
Deposit and first rent, furnishing what didn't come along, and the months in which you're still running double. Prague rents at Western European level; Brno, Olomouc and the countryside sit well below that. Count the winter in: heating is a real item.
- Bank, phone and the first counters(estimate)€ 40 – € 200
And if you buy a house?
This calculation assumes renting: the first months include deposit and rent in advance.
If you buy, count on 2 to 4% of the purchase price on top of this amount. On a home of € 250,000 that's € 5.000 to € 10.000.
Czechia no longer has a transfer tax; what remains is the notary or lawyer for the deed and the escrow account, and the entry in the land registry. Anyone may buy, regardless of nationality — the question here is not whether you may, but whether the extract is clean.
Note: buying isn't simply allowed here
No restriction on nationality and no exception for agricultural land. The purchase is only complete on entry in the land registry, not on signing: have the extract checked for attachments, easements and a pre-emption right, and let the money run through an escrow account until the entry is there.
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 11 September 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 Czechia, 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 Czechia: 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 Czechia really changes — at most one a month, no newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
Read on
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.
Orientation
- 3 min
AOW, pension and tax in Czechia: a treaty from 1974 and an exemption that stacks
The 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.
Updated 11 September 2026
- 3 min
Healthcare in Czechia: from the CAK's S1 to the health insurer
Czechia 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.
Updated 11 September 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
- 10 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 when "just staying registered" is allowed after all.
Updated 9 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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