Inheritance law in the Netherlands is set nationally, so the rules below are the same for an heir in Amsterdam as for one anywhere else in the country.
What follows is the part heirs actually need in the first weeks: who inherits, what the tax is, and the two deadlines that catch people out.
The first deadline is short.
A burial or cremation may not take place until 36 hours after death and must happen by the sixth working day, so the funeral is arranged before anybody has looked at the will.
The second is the tax return, which is due within eight months of the date of death and starts accruing interest after that.
Getting the figures right is often worth handing to an accountant rather than working them out alone.
Who Inherits Without A Will
Dutch intestacy works in groups, and a later group inherits only if the earlier one is empty.
The first group is the spouse or registered partner together with the children, in equal shares.
If there is no partner and no children, the estate goes to parents and siblings; after that to grandparents, then great-grandparents.
A cohabiting partner, however long you lived together, is in none of these groups and inherits nothing without a will.
Where there is a surviving spouse and children, the wettelijke verdeling applies automatically.
The spouse takes all the assets and all the debts, and each child receives instead a monetary claim equal to their share, which normally cannot be demanded until the surviving parent dies or goes bankrupt.
Children of a child who died first step into that child’s place.
Stepchildren and foster children do not inherit unless a will says so.
What A Will Can And Cannot Do
A Dutch will must be made before a civil-law notary, who registers it in the Centraal Testamentenregister - the register a notary searches after a death to establish whether a will exists at all.
The will can name any heirs, make specific gifts, appoint an executor and set conditions the default rules cannot.
What it cannot do is disinherit a child completely.
A disinherited child keeps the legitieme portie, a claim to half of what they would have received under intestacy, payable in money rather than in objects, and it must be invoked within five years of the death.
Before touching anything, each heir chooses one of three positions: accept outright, accept beneficially, or renounce.
Accepting outright makes you personally liable for the estate’s debts beyond what you receive, and paying a bill or clearing a flat can be treated as having accepted outright, so the beneficial acceptance declared at the district court (Rechtbank Amsterdam, for an estate here) is the safe route whenever the debts are unknown.
Banks, the land registry and insurers usually want a verklaring van erfrecht, the notary’s certificate identifying the heirs, before releasing money or transferring property.
A straightforward one takes a couple of weeks; a disputed estate can stall there indefinitely.
Inheritance Tax: The Actual Numbers
Erfbelasting is charged on each beneficiary separately, not on the estate as a whole, and both the exemption and the rate depend on the relationship to the deceased.
For 2026 the exemptions are €828,035 for a spouse or registered partner, €26,230 for a child or grandchild, €78,671 for a child with a disability, €62,110 for a parent and €2,769 for anyone else.
Above the exemption, the first €158,669 is taxed at the low rate and everything beyond it at the high rate.
Partners and children pay 10 per cent and then 20; grandchildren pay 18 and then 36; everyone else, siblings and friends included, pays 30 and then 40.
That last band is why leaving an estate to a sibling or an unmarried partner without planning is so expensive.
An unmarried partner can reach the same €828,035 exemption as a spouse, but only with a notarial cohabitation agreement containing a mutual care obligation and six months at a shared address, or five years of shared household without one.
The tax applies if the deceased lived in the Netherlands at death, wherever the assets or the heirs are.
It also applies for ten years after a Dutch national emigrates, which surprises families who assumed a move abroad settled the question.
Cross-Border Estates
Since the EU Succession Regulation took effect in August 2015, the law that governs an estate is the law of the country where the deceased was habitually resident at death.
Someone who had lived in Amsterdam for years falls under Dutch succession law regardless of nationality, unless their will expressly chose the law of their nationality instead.
That choice has to be made while alive and written into the will; it cannot be made by the heirs afterwards.
Note that the regulation governs succession, not tax - which country taxes the inheritance is decided separately, and both the Netherlands and another country can claim it on the same assets.
A European Certificate of Succession, issued here by a notary, is designed to be accepted by banks and registries in other EU states without further formalities.
It is worth asking for one at the outset if any asset sits outside the Netherlands, because obtaining it later means going back to the notary.
Frequently Asked Questions
Tax, deadlines and disinheritance account for most of what heirs ask first.
How much is inheritance tax in the Netherlands?
It depends entirely on who you are to the deceased: 10 per cent then 20 for a partner or child, 18 then 36 for a grandchild, and 30 then 40 for everyone else, with the higher rate starting above €158,669.
Each beneficiary is taxed separately on their own share.
What are the 2026 inheritance tax exemptions?
€828,035 for a spouse or registered partner, €26,230 for a child or grandchild, €78,671 for a child with a disability, €62,110 for a parent and €2,769 for any other heir.
Anything below the exemption is untaxed.
When is the inheritance tax return due?
Within eight months of the date of death, after which interest is charged on what is owed.
An extension can be requested, but it does not stop the interest.
Can I be disinherited in the Netherlands?
A child can be cut out of a will but keeps the legitieme portie, a cash claim worth half of the intestate share.
It has to be claimed within five years of the death or it lapses.
Does my unmarried partner inherit?
Not without a will - cohabiting partners are outside the statutory order of heirs entirely.
With a will and a qualifying notarial cohabitation agreement, they can also claim the same tax exemption a spouse would.
Should I accept an inheritance if I do not know the debts?
Accept beneficially by declaring it at the district court, which limits your liability to the value of what you inherit.
Avoid paying bills or emptying the property first, because that can be read as accepting the debts personally.
Which country’s law applies if the deceased was foreign?
The law of the country where they were habitually resident at death, so Dutch law for a long-term Amsterdam resident of any nationality.
The exception is a will that expressly chose the law of their nationality.
