Tax residency certificate: the one that proves you left
Your old tax office certifies only its own residents. After you leave, the proof comes from Thailand or Paraguay — how to get it, and who asks for it.
Search for a certificate of tax residence while you are leaving Europe and you find two documents that point in opposite directions. The one your current tax office issues says you live there. The one that closes your exit comes from the country you moved to. Most people look for the first and need the second.
Your old country’s certificate proves the opposite
Each of these tax offices issues a tax residency certificate, and each certifies residence there. It exists so that another country will apply a tax treaty to you — a lower withholding rate on a dividend, say — and it is issued only for a year or period in which the office counts you as its resident.
| Country | The certificate | Issued to |
|---|---|---|
| Netherlands | Woonplaatsverklaring, requested from the Belastingdienst by email | Residents subject to Dutch income or corporate tax |
| Germany | Ansässigkeitsbescheinigung, requested in writing, in two copies, from your Finanzamt | Residents under the relevant treaty |
| Belgium | Attestation de résidence fiscale (276 Conv), through MyMinfin or by post | Residents with income from a treaty country |
| Spain | Certificado de residencia fiscal, online or at an AEAT office | Only if the AEAT’s own data show Spanish residence |
| France | Form 731, from your service des impôts des particuliers | Only after it verifies French tax domicile |
Once you have left, each office can still certify a past year or period in which you lived there: the Belastingdienst takes requests up to seven years back, and the Finanzamt, SPF Finances and form 731 can all name an earlier period. None of them can certify that you no longer live there, or where you live now.
What your old tax office asks for instead
When these offices need to know where a former resident now lives, they ask for proof from the new country’s tax authority.
- Spain says it in so many words: non-residence is proved with a tax residency certificate issued by the tax authority of the other state, and that certificate is valid for a year. It matters for the 183-day count too, because the AEAT counts sporadic absences as days in Spain unless you prove tax residence in another country. For a treaty claim, the certificate has to state that you are resident within the meaning of the treaty.
- The Netherlands stops withholding Dutch wage tax and national insurance on a former resident’s wages, benefits or pension only against proof of tax residence in the new country: its form Verklaring belastingplicht woonland, completed and stamped by the new country’s tax authority, or a copy of your latest tax assessment and return from that country.
- Germany asks for a confirmation of residence from the new country’s tax authority when a former resident claims back German tax withheld on investment income, and a Finanzamt may ask for a translation of any foreign document.
- France gives a non-resident treaty rates on French dividends, interest and royalties against form 5000, certified by the foreign tax authority, or against a tax residency certificate attached to it.
For anyone moving to Thailand or Paraguay, that proof is one specific document in each country.
Thailand: the Revenue Department’s certificate
Thailand has two documents called a certificate of residence, and only one is about tax.
Immigration’s certificate of residence confirms your address. It is used for a driving licence or a vehicle purchase, and it is the one Thai banks ask for, as our bank account guide explains.
The Revenue Department’s tax residency certificate, coded RO.22 and titled in English simply “Certificate of Residence”, certifies that you were a Thai tax resident in a named tax year. It is the one a European tax office means.
Who can get it. The certificate covers a tax year, which in Thailand is the calendar year, and it needs three things:
- 180 days or more in Thailand in that year — the 180-day rule.
- A PND 90 or PND 91 return already filed for that year. The certificate itself states that you have filed.
- A Thai tax identification number.
Which country it can be for. The request names the country the certificate will be used in, and the Revenue Department issues it for countries that have a tax treaty with Thailand. Spain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and the United Kingdom have one. Portugal does not.
How to apply. Use form RO.01 with its RO.22 attachment — RO.22 is the attachment sheet for this certificate, not a form of its own. File it at the Revenue Regional Office whose districts cover the address on your tax return; that office publishes its own email address for sending it in. Include:
- copies of the filed return, its tax receipt and your tax ID card
- every passport page with a Thai entry or exit stamp that year, and a table listing those trips
- your entry and exit record from the Immigration Bureau’s technology centre in Muang Thong Thani
- your name and address in English
The Revenue Department publishes no fee and no processing time for it: the regional pages that have a heading for the issuing time leave it blank, so ask the office you file with rather than planning around a number.
Not to be confused with RO.21. The same family of forms includes the Income Tax Payment Certificate, RO.21, which states how much Thai tax you paid in a year. RO.22 certifies that you were resident and that the return was filed; RO.21 certifies what you paid. A European tax office asking for proof of residence means RO.22.
When. A return can only be filed once its year is over, and the certificate needs the return. So the certificate for the year you arrive can be requested the following year, once that return is in. That is why the proof of a move arrives in the year after it.
Paraguay: DNIT’s certificate
Paraguay’s tax authority is the DNIT, which took over from the SET under Law 7143 of 2023. Its document is the Certificado de Residencia Fiscal para Fines Tributarios.
Who can get it. For an individual, Paraguayan tax residence means permanent residence under the migration law (Decree 3181 of 2019). The cédula comes first.
How to apply. The written request names the fiscal periods and the purpose: a tax treaty with a named country, or other tax purposes. A treaty is not required. With it go:
- a copy of your cédula
- the Dirección General de Migraciones record of your entries and exits for the period
- if you are a registered taxpayer, your RUC number, with your filings up to date
The resolution that governs the certificate (RG 65/2020) has the request filed at the tax office’s service counters until an electronic route opens, and sends the answer to your Marandu tax inbox or email.
How long, and for how long. The DNIT issues it within ten working days, and it is valid for one year from issue.
Putting it together
The certificate is the last document of an exit, not the first. It needs the residence to have happened: in Thailand, a year with 180 days in the country and a filed return; in Paraguay, permanent residence and a record of your entries and exits. Everything that makes it true — the days, the lease, the bank account, the deregistration at home — has to exist before it can be asked for.
The country-specific sequences are in our guides to leaving the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Spain and France.
If you would rather have the file built for you, with the certificate requested when the year closes, book the free diagnosis call.
CERØ handles the DTV visa, Thai tax residency setup and your home-country exit — end to end. Talk to the team about your specific numbers.
CERØ handles the cédula, Paraguayan tax setup and your EU exit — from paperwork to touchdown. Talk to the team about whether Paraguay fits your structure.