Can I work remotely in the Netherlands for a US-based company?

Hi and welcome to the Forum.

At the top of the page is a link to our Handy Tools section; this contains articles written to help you plan your journey.

To answer your specific question:

In general, in the sort of circumstances you describe, you can only get a work visa to live and work in Holland if your job has a direct benefit to the Dutch economy.  I've considered your various options and think the way in that suits your circumstances is to apply for a family residence permit; you can read about these on the Dutch Government (IND) website; this link will take you there.  However, it depends on what sort of relationship you have, so, a simple question; does your relationship meet this definition:

IND wrote:

​Long-term and exclusive relationship

A relationship is long-term and exclusive if the relationship can be considered a marriage. You can show this among other things by filling out a relationship declaration. In the relationship declaration, you and your partner declare that you are going to live together in the Netherlands. You are going to run a joint household. You also declare that you have an exclusive relationship with each other.

If it does, you can probably use this method to get into Holland and work while you're here.  The hows and where's of how you pay your Dutch taxes will be a separate conversation between you and the Belastingdienst.  You should be aware that your tax matters may get complicated if the IRS still consider you resident in the US as far as taxes are concerned; I'd recommend you get some expert financial advice on this subject.

After you've read our guides and the IND link I've given you, if you have any further specific questions, please come back to us.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team

Thank you so much! I also reached out to the Dutch consulate in NY and got a response that echoed your recommendation. Hopefully this will work out for us. I think the only potential snare is that I will be the one with the supportive income, not my partner, who will be a student. Keeping my fingers crossed...

ehanmil wrote:

Thank you so much! I also reached out to the Dutch consulate in NY and got a response that echoed your recommendation. Hopefully this will work out for us. I think the only potential snare is that I will be the one with the supportive income, not my partner, who will be a student. Keeping my fingers crossed...

Thank you for the feedback; it's nice to see the Regulators agreeing with our advice.

Best of luck in your journey; if you have any further specific questions, please come back to us.

Cynic
Expat Team

As an American, you may be able to qualify for residency as an entrepreneur under the Dutch-American Friendship Treaty (DAFT), as I did. You'll need to register some sort of small business through the KvK (Chamber of Commerce) and declare at least a small income through it. As a resident of the NL, you'll be taxed on your worldwide savings + investments. As an American citizen, you may also pay taxes in the US, as I do. I moved from Newport Beach, CA to Amsterdam 8 years ago and have no regrets.

Hello!  I'm looking to do the same thing and was wondering how this worked out for you?

Hi - it's been really good, although for me the hardest thing was obtaining/maintaining my Dutch healthcare, which is a legal requirement here. To get your residency permit and official employment (which you need to get the legally required Dutch healthcare), you could go the route of the person who commented before you. However, I was under the impression that in order to maintain a small business registration, you need to have at least one Dutch client that you invoice. If you, like me, only have one client who is in the US, this doesn't work. You could always do some small amount of freelance work for a Dutch client in order to maintain this status. For me, that wasn't possible because my US-based work takes all my time. I finally learned that I could get a healthcare policy through my partner, but if you don't have that opportunity it could be challenging. Aside from that I think it's worth mentioning that the culture here is more "American" than you might expect. This country is experiencing a lot of the same cultural and political issues that America (and many other European countries) are, so if you're envisioning a place that is more equitable and rational, and less politically divided, that's not necessarily what you'll find. Hope that was helpful and not too discouraging!

Hello!

I too am in the same situation, and was wondering how you negotiated this with your employer and how your taxes work. Did it require any international agreements on your employers part? Do you still pay income tax to the United States? If so, do you pay any additional income tax to the Netherlands? How was the process of getting a partner visa?

Thank you in advance!

The partner visa was actually the easiest part of the whole process! The most problematic part of that is the 6 month processing time before you get your BSN (Dutch version of your social security number), which you need for a lot of things, most importantly, health insurance. Otherwise it was easy (but it's important to note that my partner is an EU citizen). The caveat is that you need proof that you and your partner were living together for 6 months before applying for the visa. This can be done by submitting utility bills or lease contracts that are in both your names that date to prior to 6 months before you apply.

Work-wise, the company I am working for opted to transfer my employment status from FTE (based in the US) to Contractor. That way, they don't have any business tax implications (i.e. declaring an office in an international location) and they are not obligated to pay for my continued enrollment in a US-based healthcare plan, which I wouldn't be able to use anyway. Since they were no longer spending that money on me, they bumped up my salary so that I could pay for that myself (which luckily in the Netherlands is relatively inexpensive for individual great coverage, compared to in the US).

I now have to take care of my own taxes since in the IRS's view, I am a freelancer. This means you have to make 4 predictive tax payments every year, once per quarter, based on how much you assume you'll be making in income. You can do this easily online on the IRS.gov site. You'll receive a refund or have to pay the balance after you do your taxes in the Spring, just like normal. Since I have no EU clients, I am not obligated to pay income taxes in the Netherlands. It took me almost 3 years to get this fact verified, but it's true! If you have any EU-based clients, however, you will need to pay Dutch incomes taxes, and you will have to charge the a VAT which is essentially a sales tax, and report those invoices and VAT payments to the Dutch tax authorities.

Hope this helps!

Hello,

Thank you for sharing your experience! My husband will be attending graduate school in the Netherlands this upcoming fall, and I am also trying to figure out my employment situation. I've found the blogs and government websites very confusing to navigate. So I actually submitted a question to Immigration and Naturalisation Service, Ministry of Security and Justice asking what my options were if I were to obtain a family reunification visa. (As background, my husband and i are both US citizens. I just accepted a fully remote role in a US company that has agreed to support my relocation.  I plan to apply for the family reunification visa.)

They responded with a detailed email where they said this:

"Your husband will have residence for study purposes, the family members who will have residence for family reunification are not allowed to work in the Netherlands. This restriction will be mentioned on the residence permit of the family member of the sponsor who has residence for study purposes. But this [employment] restriction is applicable on employment in the Netherlands. You can work remotely for an employer outside the Netherlands."

When I emailed back to clarify I was understanding this correctly, they said: "The restriction on the labor market refers to employment in the Netherlands. That means with this restriction you are allowed to work remotely for an employer outside the Netherlands."

I was thrilled to see this but wonder why it contradicts what I've read in other websites (bnctax.com/blog/how-can-i-work-for-my-u-s-employer-while-im-living-in-the-netherlands/). Is anyone able to offer insights about this? THANK YOU!

-J

Hi and welcome to the Forum.

Unfortunately, the link you provided has been blanked out by our Forum software.  However, the answer you have from the IND will trump anything else that anybody else has to offer in regards to your living and working in the Netherlands; with that in mind, unless you have any more specific questions, I hope you have a safe journey.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team

Hi -
I can confirm that you will be allowed to work remotely for a non-Netherlands based company! That is what I have been doing since I moved here in 2018. You will pay your income taxes to the US.

The drawback here is that since you are not working for a Dutch company, you are not eligible for Dutch healthcare, which is a legal mandate here. You can get away with not having any for awhile, but eventually they will find you and fine you several hundred Euros. Normally you could get healthcare as a dependent through your partner, but since they will be here on a student visa, they will also have to take out a special student policy, and I'm not sure they would be able to register a dependent through that. Definitely investigate this option, though!

Like I said, if you opt not to somehow get health insurance, the government will track you down after about 6 months, and fine you. If you continue not to register, they will do it for you. However, this will be more expensive (especially after the fine) and less thorough coverage; the plus side is that it will keep you legal. Maybe the company you work for could subsidize you in this case? Probably still cheaper for them then the US-based healthcare they'd be subsidizing if you stayed home...

Here is some info (if you don't already have it, install the Google Translate plugin):
copy/paste and then edit this so it actually goes (this forum doesn't allow real links) www . zorgverzekeringslijn.nl/jouw-situatie/onverzekerd/
There are some contact options to ask questions. Almost everyone here speaks English so don't be afraid to ask them. Phone number is: +31 800 64 64 644

Hope this helps!

Hi all! I'm in a very similar situation where my partner is starting graduate school in the Netherlands and I'm preparing my application for a family reunification visa and plan to continue my work for my American company as a remote worker and turning FTE status to independent contractor, as well.

The proof of income forms on the application don't seem to make it easy for this use case, such as asking for business name and tax IDs, etc.

Anyone have any advice on how to fill out the proof of income pieces based on your similar situation?

- @JakeM

I am American living in the NL and I have my first American client. I'm also on the DAFT visa and have a ZZP registered with the KVK.

And does this mean you are double taxed? From the US and also from the NL? How did it work with your taxes i.e. do you have an accountant that helps file? This is all quite confusing being an American living and working in the NL! All of my clients have been European so it's quite a different thing in terms of taxation, etc.

- @sneezie

From what I know, no matter where you live as an American or how much you earn, you need to pay taxes to America.- @Primadonna

Work-wise, the company I am working for opted to transfer my employment status from FTE (based in the US) to Contractor. That way, they don't have any business tax implications (i.e. declaring an office in an international location)...Since I have no EU clients, I am not obligated to pay income taxes in the Netherlands. It took me almost 3 years to get this fact verified, but it's true!...I can confirm that you will be allowed to work remotely for a non-Netherlands based company! That is what I have been doing since I moved here in 2018. You will pay your income taxes to the US.

Your husband will have residence for study purposes, the family members who will have residence for family reunification are not allowed to work in the Netherlands. This restriction will be mentioned on the residence permit of the family member of the sponsor who has residence for study purposes. But this [employment] restriction is applicable on employment in the Netherlands. You can work remotely for an employer outside the Netherlands...The restriction on the labor market refers to employment in the Netherlands. That means with this restriction you are allowed to work remotely for an employer outside the Netherlands."

Hi Cynic, thank you for your reply!

Your recommendation to pursue a work visa seems to contradict the experiences of @ehanmil and @jenniferhankel11 who have stated, respectively that:

Work-wise, the company I am working for opted to transfer my employment status from FTE (based in the US) to Contractor. That way, they don't have any business tax implications (i.e. declaring an office in an international location)...Since I have no EU clients, I am not obligated to pay income taxes in the Netherlands. It took me almost 3 years to get this fact verified, but it's true!...I can confirm that you will be allowed to work remotely for a non-Netherlands based company! That is what I have been doing since I moved here in 2018. You will pay your income taxes to the US.

and that:

Your husband will have residence for study purposes, the family members who will have residence for family reunification are not allowed to work in the Netherlands. This restriction will be mentioned on the residence permit of the family member of the sponsor who has residence for study purposes. But this [employment] restriction is applicable on employment in the Netherlands. You can work remotely for an employer outside the Netherlands...The restriction on the labor market refers to employment in the Netherlands. That means with this restriction you are allowed to work remotely for an employer outside the Netherlands."

I'm hoping to replicate these same experiences myself...

Maybe @ehanmil or @jenniferhankel11 can chime in with how they approached completing the proof of income paperwork for their own family reunification residency permits?

This is the last piece I'm stuck on and would so appreciate any advice!

- @JakeM

@ehanmil

What sort of tax impact does living in the netherlands have on you? Do you pay Dutch income tax and US income tax? Or no US income tax?

I'm a US citizen currently living in the Netherlands (have a residency permit and work for a dutch company) but I'm wondering about options for working for an american employer remotely. Currently I pay Dutch income tax and no US income tax (foreign earned income tax credit).

Best,

- @arielleesther

Hello, I have just moved to NL the other week and here is what I've learned…

Hello, I have just moved to NL the other week and here is what I've learned…

I am working as a full time employee (remote) for my current employer. We have had four separate legal teams including a) my employer's legal team, b) my employers US-based outside counsel, c) their outside counsel's outside counsel which is a Dutch law firm, and d) my own Dutch lawyer who I hired ALL confirmed I can legally work for a US company remotely while residing in the Netherlands. Because of a special treaty between USA and NL, I will continue to pay US taxes.

While I can work, I still need to apply for my ride to reside in the Netherlands post 90 days. I have done this via family reunification since my husband is a student here and can sponsor me. My application is submitted and my Dutch immigration lawyer has stated multiple times I have a right to stay here while my application is being processed (even if this goes past 90 days).

- @jenniferhankel11

@jenniferhankel11 This is great news! How did taxes end up working for you? Do you file a return with the Dutch tax system and does your income count as dutch earned or foreign earned income?

I'm in a similar situation, where I am working for a US based company (US payroll) but will be moving to to Amsterdam in April. I will be on my husbands visa and his company will be providing my NL Health Insurance, so I am just trying to figure out what I need to do tax-wise to continue to work for my existing US company. Any advice would be appreciated!

@jenniferhankel11 Hi your answer is super helpful and I'm wondering how you are getting along? I have a similar situation where I am an FTE for a USA-based company and make a US income but I want to work from the Netherlands. I am wondering if I can get a freelance (DAFT) visa which will give me the right to reside in the Netherlands and do some freelance work while I am working full-time for my USA Company and making a USA income and dutch income?

@jenniferhankel11 what did you end up finding out to resolve the contradicting info? My husband & I are in the exact position you described (both US citizens one is going to school, the other works remotely for US company) & would love to hear what you were able to figure out!

My name is nishantha i am from srilanka .now work in romania in 4 year .you have vacancy please  i like to work netherland

Hi, it doesn't look like Jennifer has been on the site for a good 4 months now so perhaps PMing her might work, but don't count on a reply. It's best to contact the Dutch authorities about this, and there's some good info in the Expat Guide. Thanks.

@ehanmil Hello!

My husband may be in a similar situation soon. I am relocating from the US to the Netherlands for work and sponsoring his visa to come with me. His US company is open to him working remotely from the Netherlands, but we keep reading different things about his tax obligations. If his US company converts him to a contractor, which they are open to do, it sounds like he would have a similar set up to you. I confirmed on the Belastingdienst site that he won't have to charge VAT to the US company, but I am trying to confirm the piece about not having to pay income taxes in the Netherlands if his only client is a US company. Can you tell me where you got that info? I also read that he may not be able to consider himself a contractor in the Netherlands if you only have one client - is that something that has come up while you have been there?

Let me know!