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They say that the only certainty in life is death and taxes. This is true, even escaping abroad isn’t away of escaping the tax man. Unfortunately, taxes in the Netherlands, especially for an expat, is not simple.
This page is intended for those who have their sole income in the Netherlands. If you live, work and have a family in the Netherlands then you are a Dutch tax resident. Therefore anyone who is a Dutch tax resident has to pay tax to the Dutch authorities.
The tax that affects most residents is income tax. Similarly to the UK the employer withholds the amount to be taxed from employees meaning that, unless you are self employed or work as a freelancer, you don’t have to file a tax return.
Below you can see how much you have to pay in tax. The only thing to remember is that you are entitled to an amount of around €7,000 tax free.
| Taxable income above | But not more than | Tax rates excluding social security | Tax rates Netherlands including social security contributions |
|---|---|---|---|
| €0 | €19,982 | 8.9% | 36.55% |
| €19,982 | €33,791 | 13.15% | 40.8% |
| €33,791 | €67,072 | 40.8% | 40.8% |
| €67,072 | n/a | 52% | 52% |
There are three boxes that you will fall into in the case of income tax. They are as follows:
If you want more information about working in the Netherlands have a look at our page.
The equivalent to VAT in the UK in the Netherlands is known as BTW “Belasting Toegevoegde Waarde”.
There are a number of other taxes to know about such as:
To attract employees from abroad with desirable skills, the Netherlands introduced a special tax incentive called the 30% ruling facility. This ruling was introduced as a way to subsidize some of the costs of moving abroad, as this can be an expensive process.
The 30% ruling basically allows expats to receive 30% of their salary tax-free. In addition to tuition fees whose children attend international schools and international departments of non-international schools.
The aim is of this is to remunerate expats with some of the costs of moving abroad. Unfortunately this doesn’t apply to all expats, only the ones with desirable skills. You can find out what the conditions are if you click on this link.
One of the problems that can occur when you split your time and make a living between two countries is that you are at risk of being taxed twice. Fortunately the UK and the Netherlands have a reciprocal tax agreement which means you can only be taxed once in the country where you spend over half a year (183 days). Although at the moment this is in place under EU legislation it is likely that after the Brexit a new deal will be reached – the UK has many reciprocal tax agreements with both EU and non EU countries so this isn’t something that you need to worry about!
In Holland, the fiscal year begins on January 1 and ends on December 31. The tax authorities start sending invitations to submit your tax form around February and the deadline to return this is 1 May. The same can be presented online through the website of the Tax Administration – Belastingdienst. The only drawback is that the program is only available in Dutch.
If the thought of working out how much tax you need to file makes you shudder then help exists. You could take a look at Expatica’s Ask the Expert service, where financial experts answer readers’ questions and the Ministry of Finance also publishes guides (in English) on the Dutch Taxation System (www.minfin.nl).
There are also services that exist that can do your taxes for you such as Orange Tax Services and Tax and Service Solutions. Both of these companies are experienced with expats and offer services tailored to the individual.
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