How the planner works it out
The planner follows your money year by year.
In route 1 everything goes to your private account in the first year. You pay box 2 once, and after that box 3 every year.
In route 2 the money stays in your holding. Each year the planner works out how much dividend you need to keep your yearly amount after tax. The rest stays invested and the holding pays profit tax on what it earns.
In route 3 you first borrow from your holding up to the limit, and after that you take dividend. You pay interest on the loan and the holding pays profit tax on that interest.
If you have investments in your own name, the planner uses that money first in routes 2 and 3, down to the tax-free amount of box 3. That costs no box 2 and your box 3 gets smaller.
If you choose at the top to keep your company and move abroad, the planner puts staying next to leaving. It only counts what the Netherlands charges: profit tax, tax on your salary, box 2 or dividend tax, and box 3.
At the end the planner settles everything, so you compare like with like: what is in your private account after all tax.
Buy, borrow, die: does that work in the Netherlands?
In America rich families do this: buy assets, never sell them, borrow against them to live, and pass them on. When they die the tax on the gain disappears.
In the Netherlands the first two steps work. Your holding can keep the money and you can borrow from it, up to €500,000. The third step does not work. When you die, box 2 is settled on the investments in your holding.
So borrowing gives you time. It does not make the tax go away. The planner shows with your own figures whether that time is worth the interest.
More in borrowing from your own company.
The words, explained
Holding: a company of yours that owns the shares of your working company.
Participation exemption: the rule that a holding pays no tax on the gain when it sells shares of a company it owns at least 5% of.
Dividend: profit a company pays out to its owner.
Box 2: the tax you pay on dividend and on the gain when you sell shares in your own name.
Box 3: the tax on your private savings and investments.
Profit tax: the tax a company pays on its profit (corporate tax): 19% up to €200,000 and 25.8% above.
Bill on departure: the box 2 tax the Netherlands works out on the day you move abroad. You pay it later (the official Dutch word is conserverende aanslag).
Security: something the tax office can claim if you do not pay, for example a pledge on your shares.
Questions people ask
Can I run my Dutch company from abroad?
Yes, that is allowed. The question is where the company then pays tax. If you make the real decisions from your new country, that country can say the company is based there.
The Netherlands then settles with the company itself: profit tax on the value that is not on the balance sheet, such as goodwill. Inside the European Union you can pay that in five yearly parts. If the real decisions stay in the Netherlands, for example with a director who lives here, the company stays here.
Where do I pay tax on my salary and dividend when I live abroad?
The Netherlands may usually keep taxing your salary as director of a Dutch company. On dividend the Netherlands keeps 15% dividend tax, and it also collects part of the bill on departure.
Your new country can tax the same income too and then usually gives credit for what the Netherlands took. That is set in the tax treaty between the two countries. Without a treaty the Netherlands may keep charging the full box 2.
Do I still pay box 3 on my investments after I leave?
No. If you live abroad, you pay no box 3 in the Netherlands on shares, funds and savings in your own name. A home or land in the Netherlands stays taxed here.
Investments in your holding stay taxed in the Netherlands. The holding pays profit tax on what they really earn.
Does moving abroad make the Dutch tax go away?
No. On the day you leave, the Netherlands works out the box 2 tax as if you sold your shares that day. You do not pay at once. You get a deferral. Inside the European Union that goes automatically. Outside it you give security.
Each time your company pays you dividend, the Netherlands collects part of that bill. Until 15 September 2015 the bill was cancelled after ten years. That rule no longer exists.
Where are investments better off: in your own name or in your holding?
In your own name you pay box 3: 36% on a return the law assumes, about 6% on investments, above €60,098 per person. You also pay that in a bad year. If your real return is lower, you may show that and the lower amount counts.
In your holding you pay 19% profit tax on what the investments really earn. If you later move the money to your private account, box 2 comes on top. So money that is already in the holding is usually better left there. The planner counts both.
Read next
The participation exemption, a holding in place before the sale, exit options for business owners, tax checklist when you leave the Netherlands, the exit calculator for owners who live abroad, the departure planner for owners who keep their company, the sale planner and the wealth planner.
Free to quote with the source. Quote as: Holdwise, “Departure planner: leaving the Netherlands with your company”, holdwise.nl/en/leaving-netherlands-calculator, updated 17 September 2026.