The Netherlands is a socially conscious country, and you can expect to pay a substantial proportion of your salary to the taxman. But your personal situation (non-working partner, for example), type of work, residency status and other assets and earnings (particularly from abroad) affect your position considerably. In many cases, you will still be filing a tax return in your home country and will be entering the land of double taxation agreements. There are many expat financial specialists who can complete your tax forms for you or provide other consultancy services. Other useful information can be found on the Expatica website (ask-the-expert) where financial experts answer specific questions from readers.

The Ministry of Finance publish a guide (in English) to the Dutch Taxation System (www.minfin.nl). The tax office is the Belastingdienst (www.belastingdienst.nl) and their website has extensive information in English.

Tax returns are mostly filed digitally in April) and for this you will need a digital signature or DigiD (www.digid.nl). It's essentially a personal login that you use with all government agencies enabling some transactions (paying parking fines, applying for permits etc) to be done over the internet. Authentication requirements may vary according to the sensitivity of information in transit. Tax returns can be completed retrospectively.

Residency status
If you have demonstrable ties to the Netherlands – for instance, you live here, you work here, your family is based here – you are generally regarded as a ‘resident tax payer’. If you live abroad but receive income that is taxable in the Netherlands you are generally a 'non-resident tax payer'. Non-residents can also apply to be treated as residents for tax purposes and an additional category of partial non-resident taxpayers covers those eligible for the so-called 30% ruling (see below). As a resident tax-payer you are taxed on your assets worldwide.

The Box system
Different categories of income are treated differently for tax purposes on the tax return and there are three types of taxable income:

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