Dutch taxes for Brits: the box system, leaving HMRC behind and your UK State Pension

Live in Amsterdam and the Dutch tax office, the Belastingdienst, taxes you on your worldwide income; the UK–Netherlands treaty sorts out most overlaps, and your UK State Pension keeps going up each year.

The short version

• Dutch residents pay income tax in three boxes: work and home (Box 1), a substantial shareholding (Box 2), and savings and investments (Box 3). In 2026 Box 1 runs from 35.75% to 49.50% [6].
• Leaving the UK tax system is down to the Statutory Residence Test, not your Dutch permit. Tell HMRC with a P85 or the SA109 pages of a return.
• The 2008 UK–Netherlands double taxation convention, amended in 2013, decides who taxes what. Pensions, including social security pensions, are generally taxed only where you live [2][3].
• The Netherlands is in the EEA, so your UK State Pension is uprated every year there, and Dutch contributions can count towards UK qualifying years [4].
• UK rent stays taxable in the UK; UK savings and ISAs fall into Dutch Box 3 [5].

Pound conversions use the Bank of England spot rate of 5 November 2026 (£1 = EUR 1.2002).

How the Netherlands taxes residents

The first thing to get used to is the box system. Instead of adding all income together as HMRC does, the Dutch sort it into three boxes, each with its own rules and rates [7].

Box 1: your salary

For 2026, below State Pension (AOW) age [6]:

The first band includes Dutch national insurance premiums, which is why it's lower once you reach AOW age (17.85% in the first band) [6]. Tax credits cut the bill: the general tax credit (algemene heffingskorting) is up to EUR 3,115 and the labour tax credit (arbeidskorting) up to EUR 5,685, both tapering away as income rises [6]. Your employer deducts wage tax monthly, much like PAYE.

Many Brits hired from abroad also get the expat scheme, which makes up to 30% of salary tax-free; see the 30% ruling for Brits.

Box 3: savings and investments

Box 3 doesn't tax the interest you actually earned. It taxes a deemed return on what you held on 1 January, above a tax-free amount of EUR 59,357 per person (about £49,500), or EUR 118,714 for fiscal partners [6]. For 2026 the provisional deemed returns are 1.28% on bank savings, 6.00% on other assets such as shares, funds and a second home, and 2.70% deducted for debts, taxed at 36% [6]. Since court rulings, people whose actual return was lower can in some cases ask for their real return to be used [8]. The government calls the years to 2027 "bridge years" and plans a new Box 3 system from 2028 [7]. Full details are in our guide to Box 3.

Leaving the UK tax system properly

The UK taxes by residence, not citizenship. An IND permit and a Dutch BSN don't end UK residence on their own; the Statutory Residence Test does, one tax year at a time.

1. Check the automatic overseas tests. Moving for a full-time job, the third test is the usual one: full-time work abroad, fewer than 91 days in the UK and fewer than 31 days working more than three hours in the UK in the tax year. See the Statutory Residence Test explained.
2. Look at split-year treatment for the year you go, so your Dutch salary from the move date is outside UK tax. Our split-year guide explains the cases.
3. Tell HMRC. Use form P85 if you were employed and won't file a Self Assessment return; otherwise report the move on the SA109 residence pages. Our guide to telling HMRC with the P85 covers both.

Amsterdam is under an hour's flight from London and a few hours by Eurostar, so weekends home are tempting. Count your UK days: Christmas, a few weddings and the odd Friday-to-Monday can push you into the sufficient ties test.

The UK–Netherlands double taxation convention

The convention was signed in 2008 and took effect in the UK from 6 April 2011 for income tax and capital gains tax; a 2013 protocol amended it, effective in the UK from 6 April 2014 [2]. The FCDO's guide puts the purpose simply: you shouldn't pay tax on the same income in both countries [1].

Source: the 2008 convention as amended by the 2013 protocol [3].

The pension catch. Article 17(2) lets the UK tax a pension too if it was built up with UK tax relief and the Netherlands doesn't tax it properly (not at normal rates, or less than 90% of it), but only above EUR 25,000 (about £20,800) a year [3]. For most people drawing an ordinary UK workplace pension in Amsterdam, it's taxed only in the Netherlands, once HMRC has accepted a treaty claim so the payer stops deducting UK tax.

Residence tie-breaker. If both countries treat you as resident, Article 4 looks at where you have a permanent home, then where your personal and economic ties are closer, then habitual abode, then nationality [3]. Keeping the family house in Surrey "just in case" matters here.

Relief. Where the UK can tax income under the treaty, the Netherlands gives relief by reducing its own tax; the UK in turn gives credit for Dutch tax [3].

Never move a UK pension into an overseas scheme without regulated financial advice; the overseas transfer charge and pension scams are real risks. Our guide to UK pensions abroad and the transfer warnings explains why. A tax adviser who knows both countries can check your situation before you draw anything.

Your UK State Pension in the Netherlands: uprated

Good news for anyone retiring to the Netherlands: the UK State Pension goes up every year in EU, EEA and Swiss countries, in line with the UK rate [4]. The full new State Pension is £241.30 a week in 2026/27 [9], and someone in Amsterdam gets the annual rise just as they would in Aberdeen.

• Dutch years can help you qualify. Social security contributions in EEA countries can count towards the qualifying conditions for a UK State Pension [4]. They don't raise the amount, but they can get you over the minimum.
• Dutch AOW too. Living or working in the Netherlands builds up the Dutch state pension (AOW), run by the Sociale Verzekeringsbank (SVB) [1].
• Tax. Under Article 17(1) your UK State Pension is taxable only in the Netherlands [3], so it goes into Box 1 on your Dutch return.

You can also fill gaps in your UK record; see voluntary National Insurance from abroad.

Other UK income that follows you

• UK rent. Still taxable in the UK. Register with the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme (form NRL1) so your letting agent or tenant can pay rent gross, and file a UK return [5].
• Personal Allowance. As a British citizen you usually keep the UK Personal Allowance as a non-resident, so modest UK income may be covered [5].
• Savings and ISAs. You can keep an ISA but not pay into it once non-resident. The Netherlands doesn't recognise the ISA wrapper, so it counts in Box 3. See ISAs when you move abroad.

Tax is what fills our community group for Brits in the Netherlands every spring, usually when someone opens their first M form. Tax is general information, not advice.

Sources

1. GOV.UK (FCDO): Living in the Netherlands (updated 23 December 2025)
2. GOV.UK (HMRC): Netherlands tax treaties
3. GOV.UK (HMRC): 2008 UK–Netherlands double taxation convention as amended by the 2013 protocol
4. GOV.UK: Benefits and pensions for UK nationals in the EEA or Switzerland
5. GOV.UK: Tax on your UK income if you live abroad
6. Belastingdienst: Voorlopige aanslag 2026, tarieven en heffingskortingen (checked 8 November 2026)
7. Rijksoverheid: Soorten inkomstenbelasting
8. Belastingdienst: Box 3, uitleg en tarieven (checked 8 November 2026)
9. GOV.UK: The new State Pension, what you'll get

Keep reading

• The 30% ruling for Brits
• Box 3: how the Dutch tax savings and investments
• The UK State Pension abroad: frozen or uprated?
• Double taxation agreements and reliefs