# Any expat oilfield people in Holland?



## Snozzle12 (Aug 13, 2013)

Just wondering what the tax situation is? I work in west Africa at the moment and was wondering if I located to Holland if I could avoid income taxes? I can't avoid them in the UK because of the 90 day rule.


----------



## cschrd2 (Oct 31, 2011)

As long as you pay in UK, you don't pay in NL as there are tax treaties in place. In the Netherlands the 183 rule is valid so your taxable if you reside more then 183 days in the Netherlands. Truckloads of free info to find on the www related to taxation in NL.


----------



## zenkarma (Feb 15, 2013)

Snozzle12 said:


> Just wondering what the tax situation is? I work in west Africa at the moment and was wondering if I located to Holland if I could avoid income taxes? I can't avoid them in the UK because of the 90 day rule.


Hi snozzle

I've been seriously considering purchasing a holiday apartment in Amsterdam and have been doing a lot of research on what the tax situation is and how long I could stay in the apartment before I would be considered a tax resident. I haven't been able to find the answers to specific questions (hence my reading this forum) despite reading through the Dutch taxation site in some detail. I have however, got a much better understanding of the Dutch tax system than I did before.

One thing I have learnt is that, just like the Spanish system, you want to stay out of it if you possibly can. Dutch taxes are way higher than either the UK or Spanish system and some of them (in my opinion) are downright unfair.

The worst of the bunch is that as a Dutch tax resident you will be taxed on your worldwide income and assets. That doesn't just include your earnings its the tax on your savings, investments and assets that's the real killer. As I understand it (and I hope someone can say I'm wrong) the tax isn't on the income from those earnings it's on the capital value of the assets and investments.

So, let's say you have 100k of savings in a UK bank account. That would be taxed at a nominal income of rate of 4% and on that you'd pay 30% tax. So 4% of 100k would be 4,000 and that's taxed at 30% = 1,200! Just for having 100k in a bank savings account. Same applies for any property that isn't your primary residence. £100 tax a month for having 100k in savings.

At least in the UK you're taxed on the income from the investment and not the investment itself.


----------



## zenkarma (Feb 15, 2013)

cschrd2 said:


> As long as you pay in UK, you don't pay in NL as there are tax treaties in place.


That's not quite correct.

A tax treaty simply means you don't pay the same tax twice. If your tax liability in the UK is £6,000 and your tax liability in Holland is €9,000, you pay £6,000 (€6,960) to the HMRC and €6,960 - €9,000 = €2,040 to the Belastingdienst.

HMRC and Belastingdienst have different ways of calculating tax liability and different rules in place. It's quite possible the tax bill from the Belastingdienst will be higher than that from HMRC and you'd have to pay the difference. 



cschrd2 said:


> In the Netherlands the 183 rule is valid so your taxable if you reside more then 183 days in the Netherlands.


This is interesting. Do you have any links or web addresses that can confirm this? I've looked for this information and can't find it anywhere.

Is this based on residence time or number of days worked?


----------

