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HomeYour first Dutch tax return

Your first Dutch tax return

If you moved here during the year, your first return is not the short online one. It is the M-form, a longer paper-style return for people who lived here for only part of the year. In our office it is Marloes's job.

Kitchen table in a new apartment with tax papers, a laptop and an unpacked box

  1. Request the form

    The Belastingdienst does not always send it on its own. We request it for you with your DigiD authorisation, usually in February.

  2. Collect two kinds of income

    Dutch salary from your jaaropgaaf, and income from the months before the move: salary, freelance work, rent from a flat back home. The second kind is reported, not taxed here, but it changes some of the numbers.

  3. Assets on two dates

    Savings and investments on 1 January only count if you were already resident then. For most newcomers that line stays empty, which surprises people.

  4. Claim what was withheld too much

    Employers withhold tax as if you had worked the whole year here. With a part year, part of it often comes back.

  5. Summary, your ok, filing

    You get a one page summary in plain English. We file after your reply, before 1 July of the following year.

The arrival-year trap

Many people file the normal online return for their first year because it is the one the website offers. It goes through, then a year later comes a correction with interest.

The other one: a partner who arrived later or earlier than you. Fiscal partnership can start on a different day than your own residence, and that changes who claims what.

Arrived this year and not sure what applies? Try the arrival year check or send the dates through the question form. M-form €265, with the 30% ruling check €340, both excl. BTW.