Visa holders · From the Netherlands
Nearly everyone moving to the US from the Netherlands with a Dutch workplace pension gets a Dutch tax bill on it. If you leave the pension untouched for about ten years, you can ask to have the bill cancelled.
The Belastingdienst, the Dutch tax authority, issues a protective assessment (conserverende aanslag) on your pension rights. It is based on your M return, the Dutch return for the year you move. Filing that return counts as a request to defer payment. Cashing out the pension before the deferral ends makes the bill payable. Bank savings and ordinary investments are not assessed. Box 3, the Dutch tax on savings and investments, stops taxing them once you leave.
Updated · Sources
The Dutch bill on your pension rights
- 49.50%
- is the 2026 top rate. Your pension rights are added to your other Dutch income from work and home, and the part above €78,426 pays it.
- 20%
- of the pension’s value is usually added as revision interest, owed only if the bill falls due.
- Jan. 1, 2036
- ends the deferral for someone who moves in 2026.
Deducted lijfrente (annuity) premiums get the same assessment and the same deferral.
What does the Belastingdienst weigh when you emigrate?
You must deregister with your municipality, no earlier than five days before you leave. That step alone does not end your Dutch tax residence.
Your family stays behind for now
Dutch residence turns on your circumstances, such as where your family lives and where you work. While your partner or children still live in the Netherlands, you usually stay resident there. That can change once you rent or buy a US home for them.
You are resident in both countries
In the year you move, the Netherlands and the US can each treat you as resident. The treaty then assigns you to the country where you have a permanent home, and looks further only if you have one in both.
You own 5% or more of a company
A stake of 5% or more, held alone or with a partner, is a substantial interest (aanmerkelijk belang). When you leave, the Netherlands treats it as sold at market value. In 2026 the gain is taxed at 24.5% up to €68,843 and 31% above. You can defer payment for life against security. A sale, a dividend, a capital repayment or the company’s end makes the bill payable, in whole or in part.
You keep your Dutch home
Box 1 taxes income from work and your own home. An empty home you are selling stays there for up to three years after the year you leave. Once you let it out, it moves to box 3 instead.
A 5% stake in a foreign company may be caught too. That stake is spared if you leave within 8 years of arriving, with no more than 10 years of Dutch residence in the last 25.
A €400,000 holiday home in the Netherlands draws €7,358 of box 3 tax for 2026, even with no rent.
Box 3 keeps taxing Dutch real estate after you leave, on an assumed return unless you can show a lower actual one.
WOZ value of the home
€400,000
For 2026, box 3 uses the municipal value dated January 1, 2025.
After the tax-free allowance
€340,643
A non-resident still gets the €59,357 allowance.
Assumed return at 6%
€20,439
Box 3 assumes real estate earns 6% a year, rent or no rent.
Box 3 tax at 36%
€7,358
You pay it through a Dutch return for non-residents.
Each row uses the 2026 figure set in Dutch law. If you let the home, the US taxes the rent and may credit the box 3 tax, within limits. A bill to tax actual returns, aimed at 2028, is not yet law.
The US-Netherlands tax treaty gives your AOW to the Netherlands and your workplace pension to the US.
Every row is for someone the treaty treats as a US resident, and the US column shows federal tax only. The saving clause lets the US tax its citizens and residents as if there were no treaty. The AOW and pension fund rules are exceptions to it, so a green card changes neither.
| Netherlands | US | |
|---|---|---|
| AOW state pension | Taxed The only country allowed, under Article 19(4) | Not taxed Even for US citizens |
| Growth inside a Dutch pension fund | Not taxed | Deferred until paid out Article 19(7) |
| Regular payments from a workplace pension | Not taxed Article 19(1). An exemption from the Belastingdienst stops Dutch withholding. | Taxed |
| A lump sum paid within 5 years of leaving | Can be taxed Article 19(2), with a credit for the US tax | Taxed With no credit for the Dutch tax |
| A pension for Dutch government service | Taxed Article 20(2), unless you are a US citizen | Not taxed Until you become a green card holder or US citizen (Article 20(2)) |
The Article 19(7) deferral covers pension funds exempt from Dutch company tax, which the two countries’ tax authorities listed in 2000 (IRS Notice 2000-57). Insured schemes and lijfrente products are not on that list. We found no IRS guidance on them, or on the switch to the new pension system due by January 1, 2028.
Which Dutch arrangements need rethinking once you live in the US?
Holding a beleggingsfonds or UCITS ETF
US rules usually class a Dutch beleggingsfonds (investment fund), and a UCITS ETF, as a passive foreign investment company (PFIC). Each such fund generally needs its own Form 8621 every year. Without an election, a sale is taxed as if the gain built up evenly. The share from your earlier US-resident years pays the top rate plus interest.
Moving your pension into a US plan
Dutch pension law allows a cash-out only in narrow cases, such as a very small pension, and emigrating is not one of them. A transfer to a provider the Netherlands does not recognize generally counts as a cash-out and ends the deferral.
Letting your AOW build-up stop
Each insured year adds 2% of the full AOW, and moving stops the build-up unless you still work in the Netherlands. You can keep it building with voluntary insurance, which in 2026 costs 17.9% of income, from €569 to €5,693. You qualify after a full year of cover just before you leave, and you must apply within a year. An employer posting you here for a limited period can keep you in the Dutch system with certificate NL/USA 101.
Assuming a gift from home escapes Dutch tax
Gifts from your parents above €6,908 in 2026 need a Dutch gift tax return before March 1 of the next year. You pay that tax as the recipient whenever the giver lives in the Netherlands. If you are a Dutch national, the Netherlands treats you as resident for its gift and inheritance tax for 10 years after you leave.
We file US returns that treat your AOW and Dutch pension the way the treaty does.
We prepare your US returns only. Your Dutch adviser files the M return, and we coordinate the two sides with them.
- From your first, often dual-status, year, every federal and state return we prepare checks each Dutch payment against the treaty.
- We file your FBAR once your foreign accounts together pass $10,000. A Form 8621 goes in for every Dutch fund or UCITS ETF that needs one. We add a Form 5471 for any Dutch BV that requires one. Once you pass the Form 8938 threshold, we list your Dutch pension in its Part VI. In the instant quote, every Dutch account and fund is a line, and so is each company you own more than 20% of.
- We file Form 3520 when family in the Netherlands gives or leaves you over $100,000 in a year.
- For each Dutch fund you keep, we weigh a mark-to-market or QEF election against the default PFIC tax.
- We claim the US credit on Form 1116 for Dutch tax on your rent, dividends or a pension lump sum.
- Once a Dutch pension starts paying, we set the quarterly estimated tax it calls for.
- We reply within the fee to any IRS or state letter on a return we prepared, including one that asks about your AOW.
- Individual return
- from $195
- Business return
- from $495
We quote a flat fee before work starts. We do not bill hourly.
What else do people leaving the Netherlands ask about Dutch and US tax?
Do I have to pay US taxes if I live in the Netherlands?
Only if you are a US citizen or green card holder, and even then only the Netherlands taxes your AOW. The US taxes citizens on worldwide income wherever they live, and green card holders until the card is given up or rescinded. Its foreign tax credit offsets US tax on other income the Netherlands also taxes.
What is the 30% expat tax ruling in the Netherlands?
The 30% ruling, or expatregeling, lets a Dutch employer pay a worker hired from abroad up to 30% of salary tax-free. A ruling lasts five years at most. In 2026 it covers pay up to €262,000. The worker must earn more than €48,013, or €36,497 if under 30 with a master’s degree. The rate falls to 27% from 2027, except for rulings already applied by the end of 2023. When you leave, the ruling ends no later than the pay period after the one with your last Dutch workday.
Do the Dutch have a 75% income tax?
No. The top Dutch income tax rate in 2026 is 49.50%, on taxable income from work and home above €78,426. The 75% is a levy on severance pay, and the employer pays it. It applies to severance above the employee’s reference wage, when that wage exceeds €700,000. Savings and investments pay 36% on an assumed return, and substantial shareholdings 24.5% or 31%.
Is there an income tax treaty between the US and the Netherlands?
Yes. The US-Netherlands tax treaty is in force and has applied since January 1, 1994. It was signed on December 18, 1992, and protocols of 1993 and 2004 amend it. It caps Dutch tax on dividends paid to a US-resident individual at 15%, which is already the Dutch rate, and leaves interest to the US. Its saving clause runs both ways, letting each country tax its own residents and nationals as it would without the treaty, with listed exceptions.
Does the Netherlands have an exit tax?
Yes, on some assets. The Netherlands exit tax is the protective assessment (conserverende aanslag). It mainly covers pension and lijfrente (annuity) rights and company stakes of 5% or more. Portfolio shares, funds and bank savings are not assessed. A foreign company’s shares can escape it after a short stay. The treaty gives no US step-up for the assessed value, so a later US sale is taxed from your original cost basis.
Is my AOW taxed in the US?
No. Under Article 19(4) of the treaty, only the Netherlands may tax an AOW paid to a US resident or citizen. The article is an exception to the saving clause, so it holds with a green card too. The SVB, the Dutch agency that pays the AOW, may withhold Dutch wage tax from it. The AOW stays off Form 8938. Whether your state taxes the AOW is up to the state, since the treaty binds only federal tax.
Sources
- US-Netherlands income tax convention (1992)
- Protocol to the US-Netherlands convention (2004)
- Treasury, technical explanation of the 2004 US-Netherlands protocol
- IRS, Notice 2000-57 (exempt pension trusts, US-Netherlands convention)
- US Department of State, Treaties in Force (2025)
- Social Security Administration, US-Netherlands social security agreement
- Netherlands, Algemene wet inzake rijksbelastingen, article 4 (tax residence)
- Netherlands, Wet basisregistratie personen, article 2.43 (deregistration)
- Netherlands, Wet inkomstenbelasting 2001 (Income Tax Act 2001)
- Netherlands, Invorderingswet 1990 (Tax Collection Act 1990)
- Belastingdienst, protective assessment on emigration
- Belastingdienst, Toelichting aangifte M 2025 (notes to the M return)
- Belastingdienst, Fiscale informatie 2026: box 3 tax calculation
- Belastingdienst, Fiscale informatie 2026: box 3 assets and debts
- Belastingdienst, Fiscale informatie 2026: living outside the Netherlands
- Eerste Kamer, Wet werkelijk rendement box 3 (36.748)
- Belastingdienst, exemption from wage tax withholding for non-residents
- Netherlands, Pensioenwet (Pensions Act)
- Netherlands, Wet op de loonbelasting 1964 (Wage Tax Act 1964)
- Netherlands, Wet op de dividendbelasting 1965, article 5 (dividend tax)
- Rijksoverheid, the transition to the new pension system
- Netherlands, Successiewet 1956 (gift and inheritance tax)
- Belastingdienst, when to file a gift tax return
- Rijksoverheid, the 30% ruling for workers from abroad
- Belastingdienst, 30% ruling: term and conditions
- SVB, how the AOW builds up
- SVB, conditions for voluntary insurance
- SVB, the cost of voluntary insurance abroad
- SVB, deductions from the AOW abroad
- 26 C.F.R. § 1.1-1, Income tax on individuals
- IRS, Publication 519 (2025), U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens
- 26 U.S.C. § 1297, Passive foreign investment company
- 26 U.S.C. § 1291, Interest on tax deferral
- IRS, Instructions for Form 8621 (Rev. December 2025)
- 26 C.F.R. § 1.1298-1, Section 1298(f) annual reporting for PFIC shareholders (Form 8621)
- 31 C.F.R. § 1010.350, Reports of foreign financial accounts
- IRS, Instructions for Form 8938
- IRS, Instructions for Form 3520 (Rev. December 2025)
- 26 U.S.C. § 901, Taxes of foreign countries
- 26 U.S.C. § 1012, Basis of property: cost
Reviewed and updated October 2026. General information, not advice for your situation.