Resident or Non-Resident Taxpayer in the Netherlands? A Clear Guide for Expats

Whether you're a resident or a non-resident taxpayer decides what the Netherlands taxes you on, which deductions and tax credits you get, and which tax return you file. This guide explains how your status is decided, what each status means in practice, and what changes in the year you arrive or leave. All figures are from the Dutch Tax Administration (Belastingdienst) and apply to 2026 unless stated otherwise.

How Is Your Tax Residence Decided?

The rule itself is simple: if you live in the Netherlands, you're a resident taxpayer. Deciding where you live is less obvious. You can't choose it, and it doesn't depend on your nationality or your passport. The Belastingdienst looks at where your life actually takes place. According to the Belastingdienst, it considers questions like these:

• At which address do you spend most of your time?
• Where do your partner or family live?
• Where do you work?
• Where do you have health insurance?
• Where is your GP (family doctor)?
• Where are you a member of associations or clubs?
• If you have children, where do they go to school or study?

No single factor decides it. Your overall situation does. If you can't tell which country you live in for tax purposes, you can write to your tax office, explain your situation and ask the Belastingdienst to assess it.

What about registering with the municipality?

If you'll be living in the Netherlands for longer than 4 months, you must register as a resident in the Personal Records Database (BRP) within 5 days of arriving. If you'll be in the Netherlands for less than 4 months in a period of 6 months, you register in the Register of Non-Residents (RNI) instead. Either way, you get a citizen service number (BSN).

Registration is a legal obligation and an important indication of where you live, but for tax purposes your actual circumstances count. Being registered in the RNI doesn't make you a non-resident taxpayer if your life is really based in the Netherlands.

Resident Taxpayer: What It Means

As soon as you move to the Netherlands, you become a resident taxpayer. That means:

• You declare your worldwide income. This includes your Dutch income and your income from abroad, such as foreign salary, rental income or savings and investments abroad.
• Foreign income isn't automatically taxed twice. If a tax treaty gives another country the right to tax certain income, you get double tax relief (aftrek ter voorkoming van dubbele belasting) in your Dutch return. You won't pay tax on the same income twice, even when there's no treaty with that country.
• You get the full deductions and tax credits (heffingskortingen), such as the general tax credit and the labour tax credit, if you meet the conditions.
• You're usually covered by Dutch national insurance (state pension AOW, survivor benefits Anw, long-term care Wlz and child benefit AKW) and pay contributions for it through your wages or your tax assessment.
• You may qualify for allowances (toeslagen), for example towards your health insurance, rent or childcare costs.

The three boxes

Dutch income tax splits your income into three "boxes", each with its own rules:

• Box 1 – income from work and home: salary, benefits, pensions, business profits and the notional income from your owner-occupied home (with mortgage interest deductible).
• Box 2 – substantial interest: income from a shareholding of usually 5% or more in a company.
• Box 3 – savings and investments: taxed on a notional return on your assets above a tax-free amount.

Box 1 rates 2026 (under state pension age)

The 35.75% in the first bracket is 8.10% income tax plus 27.65% national insurance contributions. That split matters for non-residents, as you'll see below. Different first-bracket rates apply once you reach state pension (AOW) age.

Box 3 in 2026

The tax-free amount in box 3 is €59,357 per person, or €118,714 for tax partners. Box 3 income is taxed at 36%. As a resident, you include your assets worldwide, valued on 1 January.

Non-Resident Taxpayer: What It Means

If you live abroad but receive income in or from the Netherlands that the Netherlands is allowed to tax, you're a non-resident taxpayer. Common examples are cross-border workers employed in the Netherlands, people who rent out or own property in the Netherlands, and former residents who receive certain Dutch income.

• You only declare income that's taxed in the Netherlands. Whether the Netherlands may tax an item depends on the tax treaty with your country of residence. Dutch real estate is always taxed in the Netherlands.
• Box 3 is limited. You only declare Dutch real estate (such as a holiday home or a rental property), rights relating to Dutch real estate (such as usufruct or leasehold), and certain profit-sharing rights in a Dutch business. A Dutch bank account, for example, is not taxed in box 3 for non-residents. If you own a home in the Netherlands that is your own home, you declare it in box 1.
• Deductions and tax credits are restricted, unless you're a qualifying non-resident taxpayer (see below).
• National insurance is assessed separately. Being a non-resident taxpayer doesn't automatically mean you pay Dutch national insurance contributions. That depends on international social security rules, not on tax treaties.

Which tax credits do non-residents get?

Every Dutch tax credit has two parts: a contribution component (a reduction on national insurance contributions) and a tax component (a reduction on income tax).

• You get the contribution component if you're compulsorily insured under Dutch national insurance and meet the conditions, for example because you work in the Netherlands. If you're only insured for part of the year, you get it for that part.
• If you live abroad for the whole year, you're usually not entitled to the tax component, although some tax components can apply depending on your situation.
• A qualifying non-resident taxpayer gets both components, just like a resident.

Example: in 2026 the general tax credit is a maximum of €3,115. Of that, the tax component is 8.10/35.75, about €706. A non-qualifying non-resident with compulsory Dutch national insurance would normally receive only the contribution part.

Deductions and credits for non-qualifying non-residents, by country of residence

Special rules apply to residents of the United Kingdom after Brexit. The Belastingdienst only publishes these in Dutch.

Qualifying Non-Resident Taxpayer: The 90% Rule

Many cross-border workers earn almost all their income in the Netherlands. For them, there's the scheme for qualifying non-resident taxpayers (kwalificerende buitenlandse belastingplicht). You qualify if you meet all of these conditions:

1. You don't live in the Netherlands, but you do live in another EU country, Liechtenstein, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, or on Bonaire, Sint Eustatius or Saba.
2. You pay tax in the Netherlands on at least 90% of your total (worldwide) income.
3. You send the Belastingdienst an income statement (inkomensverklaring), stamped and signed by the tax authority of your country of residence.

If you qualify, you get the same deductions and tax credits as a resident, including mortgage interest deduction and the box 3 tax-free allowance. If you're married or in a registered partnership and your partner also qualifies, you can file together as tax partners.

The income statement form is available on the Belastingdienst website in the language of your country of residence. Get it stamped as early as possible, because foreign tax offices can take time. If you sent one before and still qualify, you don't need to send a new one unless the Belastingdienst asks for it.

The Year You Move: Part Resident, Part Non-Resident

In the year you move to the Netherlands, or leave it, your tax status changes partway through the year. Before your move you were not taxable here, or you were a (possibly qualifying) non-resident taxpayer. From the day you start living here, you're a resident taxpayer.

• For that year you file a migration return: online via Mijn Belastingdienst (the income tax return for taxpayers who lived outside the Netherlands for part of the year), or on the paper M form.
• You usually get the tax component of the tax credits only for the period you lived in the Netherlands, unless you were a qualifying non-resident taxpayer for the period abroad.
• The Belastingdienst has 3 years to issue the final assessment for a migration year. For example, the final assessment for 2025 must be issued by 31 December 2028 at the latest. In practice it's usually faster.

Leaving the Netherlands works the same way in reverse. You file an M return for the year you emigrate and become a non-resident taxpayer afterwards if you still have Dutch-taxed income.

The 30% Ruling (Expat Scheme) and Your Tax Status

The expat scheme (30% ruling) lets your employer pay part of your salary tax-free to cover the extra costs of moving here. It's a wage tax benefit. It doesn't make you a non-resident: if you live in the Netherlands, you're a resident taxpayer, with or without the ruling.

• Maximum percentage: up to 30% in 2025 and 2026. From 2027 this drops to 27%, unless you started using the scheme by 31 December 2023, in which case 30% continues.
• Salary requirement 2026: your taxable annual salary must be more than €48,013, or more than €36,497 if you're under 30 and have a Dutch master's degree or an equivalent foreign degree. A higher salary requirement applies from 2027.
• Maximum: the ruling applies to a salary of up to €262,000, which means a maximum tax-free allowance of €78,600 in 2026 for a full year.
• Duration and conditions: up to 5 years. You must have been recruited from abroad and have lived more than 150 km from the Dutch border for more than 16 of the 24 months before you started working here. Your employer applies together with you.

End of the partial non-resident taxpayer status

Until 2024, residents with the 30% ruling could choose to be treated as non-residents for box 2 and box 3, so their foreign savings and investments weren't taxed in the Netherlands. This option ended on 1 January 2025. Under transitional rules, you can still use it until the end of 2026 if you were using the 30% ruling before 2024. From 2027, all residents declare their worldwide assets in box 3.

Filing Your Tax Return

• Residents: if you receive an invitation (uitnodiging) to file, you must file before 1 May of the following year. You can request a postponement before that date. If you don't receive an invitation, you can still file. You often should, for example to get a refund.
• Non-residents: you must file if the Belastingdienst invites you, or if you owe more than the assessment limit or are entitled to a refund above the refund limit (for 2025: €57 and €18). The deadline is in your invitation letter. You file online via Mijn Belastingdienst or on the paper C form.
• Migration year: online M return or the paper M form.
• Interest: if you receive an assessment to pay after 1 July, tax interest is charged from 1 July.
• Logging in: you need a DigiD. If you live abroad, you can apply for DigiD from abroad, or in some cases use a European-recognised login from your country of residence.

Social Security Is a Separate Question

Your tax status and your social security status are linked, but they're not the same thing:

• Employee insurances (sickness, unemployment, disability) are compulsory for everyone who works in the Netherlands as an employee.
• National insurances (AOW, Anw, Wlz, AKW) are compulsory for everyone who lives in the Netherlands, and can also apply to non-residents with Dutch income, depending on (inter)national rules.
• Tax treaties don't contain rules on national insurance contributions. Within the EU, social security coordination rules decide which country you're insured in. The Social Insurance Bank (SVB) handles questions and exemptions.

Quick Comparison

Practical Checklist for New Arrivals

1. Register with your municipality (BRP) within 5 days of arriving, and collect your BSN.
2. Apply for DigiD so you can file returns and apply for allowances.
3. Give the Belastingdienst your bank account number for refunds.
4. If you might be eligible for the 30% ruling, agree on it with your employer and apply together early. The Belastingdienst takes up to 8 weeks to decide.
5. Check whether you're entitled to allowances (toeslagen) for health insurance, rent or childcare.
6. Keep records of your foreign income and assets for your first (migration-year) return.
7. If you're unsure where you live for tax purposes, ask the Belastingdienst to assess your situation in writing.

Who to Contact

• Tax Information Line for Non-resident Tax Issues: +31 555 385 385 from abroad, or 055 5 385 385 from the Netherlands. Monday to Thursday 8:00–20:00, Friday 8:00–17:00.
• Tax Information Line for residents (BelastingTelefoon): 0800 0543 (free from the Netherlands). Same opening hours.

Official Sources

• Belastingdienst: in which country must you file a tax return? (Dutch)
• Belastingdienst: when do you live permanently in another country?
• Belastingdienst: deductions and credits if you live abroad
• Belastingdienst: income statement for qualifying non-resident taxpayers
• Belastingdienst: tax credits (international)
• Belastingdienst: box 1 rates (Dutch)
• Belastingdienst: box 3 tax-free allowance (Dutch)
• Belastingdienst: tax return for the year of emigration or immigration
• Belastingdienst: filing as a non-resident taxpayer
• Belastingdienst: the Expat Scheme (30% facility)
• Rijksoverheid: changes to the expat scheme from 2027 (Dutch)
• Belastingdienst: partial non-resident taxpayer status (Dutch)
• Government.nl: when to register in the BRP

This article gives general information based on Belastingdienst and government sources as of October 2026. Tax outcomes depend on your personal situation and on the tax treaty with the countries involved. Rates and amounts change every year. For a binding answer, contact the Belastingdienst or a qualified tax adviser.