Moving From India to the Netherlands: Tax in Both Countries (2026)

1In short

2The tax treaty

Treaty

NL–India tax treaty 1988

Employment income

Art. 15: taxed in the country where the work is done

183-day exception

The home country keeps the right only for a stay of 183 days or less in the fiscal year concerned, paid by an employer from the home country and not borne by a branch in the other

Resident of both?

Art. 4(2): permanent home, then centre of vital interests, then habitual abode, then nationality

Dutch relief

Art. 23(2): exemption by reducing Dutch tax

India's relief

Art. 23(4): credit for the Dutch tax, up to India's own tax on it

3Moving from India to the Netherlands

From the day you live here, the Netherlands taxes you as a resident. Before that it taxes nothing, because you neither lived nor worked here. For your first year you file an M-form (migration return), due 1 July of the following year.

The Indian tax year runs from 1 April to 31 March. You are resident for the whole year if you spent 182 days or more in India in it (also for citizens leaving for a job abroad). In such a year India may also tax the Dutch salary and credits the Dutch tax.

With the 30% ruling the Dutch tax is lower. The M-form estimator and the cross-border calculator work out your own dates and salary.

4Social security

Working for a Dutch employer means Dutch social security from your first working day. Posted here by an Indian employer? Under the Netherlands–India social security agreement, Indian social security can continue for up to 60 months with a certificate of coverage (Art. 7).

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