Your first Dutch tax year: payroll tax, M return and Expat Scheme

Your first Dutch tax year runs on the same payroll system as later ones, with income tax taken from your salary in advance. The return is where it differs: if you arrived partway through the year, it is the migration (M) return. The Tax Administration (Belastingdienst) then tells you what you get back or still owe.

Who this applies to

This guide is for employees who have moved here. As soon as you move to the Netherlands, you become a resident taxpayer: you pay income tax and file your return here. You state your worldwide income on that return, income from abroad included. That does not always mean paying Dutch tax on the foreign part: you may be entitled to double tax relief. Filing in two countries does not mean paying tax twice on the same income.

Before your first working day

Your BSN

You receive your citizen service number (BSN) when you register with the municipality where you are going to live; take proof of identity. See registering your address and getting a BSN.

Payroll tax and the tax credit

Your employer withholds tax from your salary as an advance payment of income tax; with national insurance contributions, this makes up payroll tax (loonheffing). Before your first working day, give your employer the signed Model Statement of Data for Payroll Taxes. On it you choose whether your employer applies the payroll tax credit (loonheffingskorting), which lowers the tax. Only one employer can apply it: if two do, you pay back the difference when your return is assessed.

If your employer does not have your name, address, place of residence or BSN before your first working day, or has not checked your identity by copying a valid ID, it must apply the anonymous rate: in 2026, 52% payroll tax, without the payroll tax credit. It also applies while your BSN application is pending, unless your employer can show the delay is beyond your and its control, such as slow handling by the municipality. Your employer may later correct that year’s withholding; anything left over is settled through your tax return.

DigiD and your bank account

You need a DigiD to file online (see how to apply for DigiD). The Tax Administration needs your bank account number to pay refunds, and it must be a current account in your own name, not a savings account. Pass on a Dutch account in Mijn Belastingdienst, or with the form Opgaaf rekeningnummer particulieren (in Dutch) if you have no online access. For a foreign account, send a letter with a copy of a valid ID and a bank statement showing your name and account number, or your bank’s confirmation of your request for that account, none of them older than 2 months; the page (in Dutch) lists what the letter must include, and an incomplete request is not processed.

The Expat Scheme (30% facility)

Under the Expat Scheme (30% facility), which many people still call the 30% ruling, your employer can reimburse the extra costs of moving here tax-free. Instead, in 2026 it may pay you up to 30% of your salary, including compensation, untaxed: the 30% is worked out on your pay including the allowance. It need not pay the full 30%, so agree the amount in advance. In 2026 the allowance is capped at €78,600, reached at a salary of €262,000 or more over a full year; for part of a year, such as your arrival year, the cap is lower in proportion.

To qualify, you must meet all these conditions:

• You are employed by the employer that applies the scheme.
• Your annual salary, not counting the tax-free allowance, is above the salary norm: in 2026, €48,013, or €36,497 if you are under 30 with a Dutch academic master’s degree or an equivalent foreign degree. The lower norm applies only until the end of the month in which you turn 30. Researchers at a designated research facility and doctors in specialist training are exempt from the norm.
• You were recruited from abroad: for more than 16 of the 24 months before your first working day, you lived more than 150 kilometres from the Dutch border, as the crow flies. There are exceptions, for example if you did your PhD here or used the scheme before.
• Your employer has a decision from the Tax Administration. You apply for it together, and should hear within 8 weeks.

File within 4 months of your first working day and the decision applies from that day. File later and it applies only from the first day of the month after you file, with the 5-year term shortened by the gap.

A decision lasts up to 5 years, minus earlier periods you worked or lived here, with some exceptions. If your salary falls below the norm in any year, the scheme lapses from 1 January of that year and cannot be restarted. In the year your job starts or ends, your pay is annualised for this test.

Your first return: the M return

If you lived here for only part of a year because you immigrated or emigrated, that year’s return is the migration (M) return. It covers the calendar year in which you arrived, and you file it later, once the Tax Administration makes that year’s return available: someone who arrived partway through 2026, for example, files an M return for tax year 2026. Each tax year has its own paper form, and the explanation linked in this guide is the one for tax year 2025.

When to file

You will usually receive a letter when you are due to file; if none comes, fill in the return online to see whether you owe tax or get a refund. The letter gives the date by which your return must be received (in Dutch).

Missed it? File as soon as you can: after a reminder and a formal demand, a fine can follow, and late filing can also mean tax interest.

Need more time? Ask for a postponement before the date in your letter, and call the Tax Administration early to check how (see Getting help). Allow extra time if your fiscal partner has no BSN yet: they must apply for one before your return can be dealt with.

How to file

Keep your annual statement (jaaropgaaf) from your employer to hand, and note the date you came to live here, usually the day you registered with the municipality; the return asks for both. The period you lived here decides whether you get the full tax credit or a time-proportional one.

1. Online. Log in to Mijn Belastingdienst and choose “Aangifte inkomstenbelasting voor belastingplichtigen die een deel van het jaar buiten Nederland wonen doen”. No DigiD yet? Apply for one, or file on paper.
2. On paper. Choose the paper M form for your tax year from the Tax Administration’s M-return page when it becomes available.

You will usually hear within 3 months of filing.

Later years: the regular return

If you received a letter, your return must arrive before the date in it, often 1 May. File before 1 April and you will hear before 1 July.

Without a letter, check online whether you need to file. For tax year 2025 (in Dutch), you had to file if you owed €58 or more, or if you were entitled to allowances (toeslagen) or other income-dependent schemes and you, your partner or your minor children had over €37,395 in assets (€74,790 with a fiscal partner). You should also file if you were due €19 or more back. If you must file, do so before 14 July after the tax year, or you risk a fine.

Need more time? Only people who received a letter can ask for a postponement. For the 2025 return, you had to ask before 1 May 2026; the postponement then ran until 1 September 2026, usually with tax interest.

Fiscal partners

Married people and registered partners are normally fiscal partners (in Dutch), as are some people registered at the same address, for example with a notarial cohabitation contract or a child together. Whole-year partners, or those who choose to be treated that way, can split certain shared income and deductions in any way that adds up to 100%. Extra rules apply if one of you lives abroad, and in your arrival year: in the M return, you can divide these items only for your time here, and only if it began and ended at the same time for both of you.

Allowances are separate

Allowances (toeslagen) are applied for separately, via Mijn toeslagen. On a low income, you may be eligible for healthcare benefit, a contribution towards your health insurance premium and compulsory excess. See our health insurance guide.

Common mistakes

• Starting work before your employer has your details, a copy of your ID and your BSN.
• Letting two employers apply the payroll tax credit at once.
• Filing the Expat Scheme request after the 4-month window.
• Assuming the 2026 Expat Scheme amounts still apply in 2027.
• Leaving income from abroad off your Dutch return.
• Giving a savings account, or one in someone else’s name, for refunds.

Getting help

For questions about the M return, call the BelastingTelefoon Buitenland: +31 555 385 385. For other tax and allowance questions, call the Tax Information Line for Residents: 0800 0543, free from the Netherlands. For help with your M return, you can also make an appointment with a Tax Administration employee, in person or by (video) call. Online booking is in Dutch only, but the Tax Information Line can book for you.