Dutch income tax for newcomers: migration-year tax return (M return), deadlines and the expat scheme

Start with the tax year and where you lived during that whole year. Then check the letter, the return type and the figures that belong to that tax year. Do not copy a deadline, rate or refund estimate from another person. Cross-border income, assets, social-insurance periods and tax treaties can change the result.

A P-form label appears in some official information for particular resident-taxpayer situations, and a C form is for a full-year non-resident. A move during the year uses M. If the portal and your letter appear to point to different routes, use the official M-return help appointment before submitting.

The Belastingdienst made the 2025 M return available online on 1 May 2026 and published 1 July 2026 as its filing date. That date has passed. Check your own letter and file now if it required a return. If you had no letter but the completed 2025 return shows more than €57 due, the general 14 July 2026 date for filing without an invitation has also passed. If the return only shows a refund above €18, you can still claim it; the normal five-year limit for 2025 ends on 31 December 2030.

Keep the records listed below and arrange a DigiD now. The Belastingdienst has not published the personal deadline for your 2026 M return in this guide’s source set. Do not assume that the 2025 opening date will repeat. In 2027, check your aangiftebrief and the current M-return page before planning when to file.

• Your BSN (citizen service number), DigiD or eligible European login, Dutch bank account details and exact migration date.
• Every jaaropgaaf (annual wage statement) from a Dutch employer or benefit agency, plus payslips if a statement is missing.
• Records of relevant income from the Netherlands and abroad, including wages, benefits, pensions, freelance or business income and other payments requested by the form.
• Statements for Dutch and foreign bank, savings, investment and crypto accounts, and details of property, mortgages and other debts for the dates requested.
• The BSN and records of a spouse or fiscal partner and children when the return asks for them.
• Evidence for deductions, any voorlopige aanslag (provisional assessment), and any expatregeling beschikking (Expat Scheme decision).

The online return can contain pre-filled wage, bank and property data. Check it against the original statements and correct missing or wrong entries. Pre-filled does not mean complete, especially after a move.

Log in to Mijn Belastingdienst with DigiD or an eligible European login. Under Inkomstenbelasting, choose the return for taxpayers who lived outside the Netherlands for part of the year. Online M returns are normally available for the previous five years. The income-tax app is not the route described for an M return.

If you cannot or do not want to file online, request the paper form M. It should arrive within two weeks and is available only in Dutch. Use the form for the correct tax year, sign it and follow the return instructions. A paper form is an alternative filing route, not extra time; the same personal deadline still applies unless you obtain postponement.

The M return divides the year into periods before and after the move and asks for relevant income and assets from the Netherlands and abroad. Report what the form asks even when another country may tax it. Reporting foreign income does not automatically mean paying Dutch tax on it: a tax treaty or Dutch double-tax relief can allocate the taxing right or prevent double taxation. You may also need a return in the country you left.

A Dutch employer withholds loonheffing (wage tax and national-insurance contributions) from salary and reports it on the jaaropgaaf. The income tax return compares what was withheld with the final calculation. You receive money only when the final assessment shows that you paid too much; you pay more when too little was collected.

Living in the Netherlands for only part of a year and receiving wages is one official example where a refund may arise. It is not a promise. Foreign income, more than one employer, side income, the period of Dutch social insurance, deductions, tax credits, a fiscal partner and Box 2 or Box 3 can change the result. Complete the full return to see the calculation before deciding whether to send a voluntary refund claim.

The first Box 1 percentage includes national-insurance contributions and differs for people at or above AOW age. The online return applies the rates and tax credits; the table is not enough to estimate a migration-year bill.

Box 3 is changing. In the 2025 return, a filer above the Box 3 threshold may optionally enter werkelijk rendement (actual return). The Belastingdienst calculates both the deemed and actual methods and uses the more favourable result. Follow the questions for the exact tax year; do not treat an old statement that Box 3 always uses only a deemed return as current guidance.

An aangiftebrief makes filing mandatory, and its date controls. Without a letter, first complete the correct return without sending it. If it shows more tax due than the assessment threshold, you must send it. The general Belastingdienst instruction says to do this by 14 July after the tax year. The assessment threshold is €57 for 2025 and €58 for 2026.

If no letter arrived and the result is a refund, sending is optional. The Belastingdienst pays a refund only above the refund threshold, €18 for both 2025 and 2026. A refund claim can normally be filed for five years after the tax year. Keep proof of submission and make sure the Belastingdienst has the correct bank account.

Request uitstel (postponement) before the deadline in your letter. For a foreign or migration return, use the Dutch paper postponement form or call the non-resident Tax Information Line; the normal online postponement route is not the route given for these returns. Postponement changes the filing date but does not necessarily prevent tax interest. For a payable 2025 assessment imposed after 1 July 2026, the official migration/foreign-return page says interest runs from 1 July.

For an M return, the Belastingdienst says you will usually receive a message within three months. That message may be a receipt notice or a provisional assessment, not the final assessment. The legal outer period for the final assessment is three years after the tax year; for 2025 it is 31 December 2028. Any filing postponement extends that outer period. When an assessment grants a refund, the Belastingdienst normally transfers it within one week after the date on the assessment.

File as soon as possible. After a missed required return, the Belastingdienst can send a herinnering (reminder), then an aanmaning (formal demand). The formal demand gives ten working days from its date. Filing after that period can bring a €469 late-filing penalty; repeated failure can increase it to €6,709. The Belastingdienst may also estimate the income, and interest can apply. Read every new letter and use its deadline rather than waiting for the next one.

The expatregeling lets an employer reimburse eligible extraterritorial costs tax-free or pay up to the permitted percentage of wages, including the allowance, tax-free. In 2026 that percentage is at most 30%. The employer is not required to give the full percentage; the employment agreement matters. The 2026 annual tax-free allowance is capped at €78,600 for a full year, reached at €262,000 of salary when all conditions are met.

• You are an employee and were recruited outside the Netherlands.
• For more than 16 of the 24 months before the first Dutch working day, you lived more than 150 kilometres from the Dutch border as the crow flies.
• Your 2026 taxable annual salary excluding the allowance is more than €48,013.
• If you are under 30 with a qualifying Dutch academic master’s degree or foreign equivalent, the 2026 salary test is more than €36,497.
• Designated scientific researchers and doctors training as specialists do not have a salary threshold.
• You and the employer apply together and the Belastingdienst issues a valid beschikking (decision).

Apply within four months of the first working day to request application from that day. A later request cannot secure the benefit from day one. The Belastingdienst says it responds within eight weeks. A decision lasts at most five years, and some earlier periods of work or residence in the Netherlands reduce that term. Use the end date on the decision.

If the new and old employers are in the same recognised connected group of withholding agents and the conditions remain met, the decision can stay valid without a new request. Outside such a group, the new job must start within three months after the old job ended, and you and the new employer must request continuation within four months after the new start date to use it from that first day.

A separate option, partiële buitenlandse belastingplicht (partial foreign tax liability), ended for most users from the 2025 return. A qualifying person who already used the expatregeling before 2024 can still elect it under transitional law through the 2026 return. It affects Box 2 and Box 3, so a person with substantial foreign assets or a company interest should check the official transition or get advice before filing.

A voorlopige aanslag is a provisional assessment based on an estimate for the current year. It can collect expected tax in instalments or pay an expected refund during the year; it is not an extra refund. Apply or change it in Mijn Belastingdienst. The Belastingdienst normally responds within eight weeks and generally renews an existing provisional assessment for the next year from mid-December. Check every renewed estimate and update it after a move, salary change, home purchase, new income or other material change, because the final return settles any difference.

For the online M return, use DigiD or an eligible European login. Without one, request the paper M form or arrange postponement before the deadline. The paper form is Dutch-only. You can book the official Belastingdienst help route from the M-return page. If a family member or adviser will file online, use DigiD Authorisation for the specific task and period. Never give anyone your DigiD username, password or app code.

• Identify M, normal resident or full-year non-resident return from where you lived during the tax year.
• Read the aangiftebrief and record its exact deadline; if no letter arrived, complete the return to check the thresholds.
• Gather records from the Netherlands and abroad, then compare every pre-filled figure with the original.
• Submit if filing is compulsory or if you choose to claim a refund, and save the receipt and assessment.
• If the expatregeling may apply, ask the employer now about eligibility, the agreed allowance and the four-month application window.