M stands for the migration income tax return, do you need to file an M form? That depends.
Migration income tax return
Migration is in fact you moving from one country to another. When you make this move, you move also your tax residency from one country to the other. If you move from abroad to the Netherlands, then the Netherlands likes to tax you as a resident tax payer for the period you were actually residing in the Netherlands. The period you were not a Dutch tax resident, so the period you were residing abroad in the tax year, that period is not taxed in the Migration income tax return. The exception to this rule is property you owned in the Netherlands while you were living abroad.
How does the tax office know you have migrated from or to abroad?
Simple, every resident in the Netherlands needs to register him or herself with city hall. City hall communicates to official institutes such as the Dutch tax office.
What if you forgot to register and you do this much later, or even a year later, what is than the date of your migration?
The date of your migration is not the registered date, but the actual date. If you were too late with updating city hall, you basically need to proof to the Dutch tax office with facts and circumstance what was the true date of migration.
The migration income tax – Do I need to file an M form?
You are required to file an M form or any other tax return if the tax return has been issued to, regardless if you have anything to be reported.
You are required to file an M form or any other income tax return, if you know you need to pay income tax.
You are required to file an M form if you owned a house in the Netherlands, but if the house is rented, you only actually need to send in the tax return if you are tax due over the house.
Not always the tax office issues to you an M form or the tax office spreads the issuing of the M form over the year, hence some are invited earlier to file an M form than other. What if you know you can have money back, what can you do then? Then you can contact us, and we process the M form immediately without applying for it.
To file a M form, can I do it myself?
Yes you can, but the form is horrible. It is a large form, not the easiest form. Regular tax returns can be a challenge for Dutch natives, the M form exceeds this category. So yes you can do it yourself, we think you are a brave man if you succeeded.
Orange Tax Services
For the regular Dutch accounting firm the Migration income tax return is an exotic tax return to be filed. For us it is core business. We file hundreds of M forms on a yearly basis, hence we think we have sufficient expertise in the office to assist you. The 2019 rate to file your M form is EUR 390 incl VAT including your tax partner. The M form we can file for you for max 5 years back, that is the period 2014-2018. If you are not sure if a possible refund from the M form exceeds our fee to file, simply ask us to CHECK (indeed with capital letter to avoid mistakes) if you can have a refund. Checking is free, filing is charged at EUR 390 incl VAT including your tax partner.
