Do I have to file at home while living in Netherlands?
For most people the answer turns on whether the ties that made them resident have actually ended. For a US citizen or green-card holder it does not: the return is due in Netherlands exactly as it would be at home. Everything else on the file follows from which of those you are.
Is there a treaty between my country and Netherlands?
Possibly, and the version in force for your year is the one that matters — protocols and multilateral-instrument positions change what a treaty does without changing its name. We check it against the authority rather than a summary. Where no treaty applies, domestic relief takes over.
I own property in Netherlands. Where is the rent taxed?
Where the property is. That is close to universal, and it usually arrives as withholding on the gross rent rather than as a return on the profit — which is why the election onto a net basis, where Netherlands offers one, is normally the first thing to check. Your home country taxes the same rent and credits what was paid.
I work from Amsterdam for a Canadian employer — who taxes my salary?
The Netherlands taxes what you earn for work physically performed on its territory, and it does that whether or not your employer has anything here. Your employer's country usually keeps a claim on the same salary until it accepts that you have left, which is a question of ties rather than of where the laptop sits. So the first answer is often both, and the treaty then decides which side gives way and which gives credit. Getting this right early matters, because the correction is a payroll matter and not simply a return, and payroll is the part that is awkward to unwind once the year has closed.
Does my employer have to run Dutch payroll if I am the only person here?
Frequently yes. A wage withholding obligation attaches to the employment of a person working in the country, and the size of the local presence does not by itself remove it. Employers often discover this after the fact, when the employee's own filing shows salary that no local payroll ever touched. There are arrangements under which a foreign employer registers and withholds without establishing anything further, and there are cases where the obligation genuinely does not arise. Which applies turns on the facts of the engagement and on what the treaty says about where the employment is exercised, so it is a question to settle before the first payday.
Can my employer be taxed here just because I work from my flat?
It is possible, and it is the question employers ask last. A place at the employer's disposal through which business is carried on can amount to a taxable presence, and an employee who habitually plays the principal role leading to the conclusion of contracts can create one even without premises. Someone doing support work from home is a weaker case than a salesperson closing deals. The Dutch authorities examine substance closely, so the honest answer is that this is decided on what you actually do rather than on the title in your contract. It is worth a written position on the employer's file before the question is asked.
Which country's social security do I pay while working from the Netherlands?
Social security follows its own rules and does not have to land in the same country as income tax. Within Europe a coordination framework assigns a worker to one system at a time, and separate bilateral agreements do similar work between the Netherlands and countries outside it. Where an agreement applies, the usual mechanism is a certificate issued by the country whose system you remain in, which the other country accepts as evidence that no contributions are due there. Without that certificate both systems can charge, and the amounts involved are often larger than the income tax difference being argued about.
I split my working week between two countries — how is the salary divided?
By where the work was physically done, day by day. Each country taxes the part of the salary relating to duties performed on its territory, and the apportionment is made on a record of working days rather than on an estimate at the year end. That makes the diary the evidence. Travel days, training days and days of paid leave all have conventions attached to them, and the two authorities do not always apply the same ones, so an apportionment that satisfies one side is not automatically accepted by the other. Keep the record as you go; reconstructing it afterwards is possible but much harder to defend.
My employer pays me as a contractor — does that change my Dutch position?
It changes the mechanism and it does not necessarily change the answer. If the relationship has the substance of employment, with fixed hours, direction from the payer and no real risk carried by you, the label on the invoice will not hold. The consequence falls on both parties: on the payer for withholding it did not operate, and on you for a filing basis that turns out to be wrong. Independent status also affects whether you register for turnover tax and how profits are computed. The Dutch authorities examine substance closely, so the arrangement is worth reviewing against the facts before a pattern is set.
Can I move my 401(k) or IRA into an RRSP?
In limited circumstances, and rarely without cost. Canada allows a transfer of certain US plan proceeds into an RRSP with additional room for that purpose, but the withdrawal is a taxable distribution on the US side first, with withholding and potentially an additional charge for taking it early. Whether the Canadian credit fully absorbs that US tax is the calculation that decides it. Often leaving the plan where it is and drawing later is the better answer. See RRSP against 401(k) and IRA.
How long do I have to be out of the country to stop being resident?
There is no single period that settles it. Canada looks at whether your ties were actually severed, not at a day count; the United States taxes citizens regardless of where they live; India applies day-count thresholds with a second limb reaching back over earlier years. Time abroad is evidence, not a rule — what decides it is where your home, family and economic life sit. See tax residency.
