cityparity

Kinderopvangtoeslag for expats: the numbers, worked line by line

By Skyler Bissell · August 2, 2026 · 7 min read

An Amsterdam nursery invoices €42,000 a year for two children in full-time care. Kinderopvangtoeslag hands back about €6,300 per child, and the household is left with €29,400. Most explanations of the Dutch childcare benefit stop at "the government pays most of it", which is true at a Dutch median income and wrong at the income of the people usually reading this.

The Netherlands does something none of its neighbours do: it charges close to full market price at the door and refunds a percentage afterwards. That design decides everything about how much you end up paying, so this post walks the whole calculation, invoice to bank account, with the two caps that do the damage.

TL;DR

What kinderopvangtoeslag is

Kinderopvangtoeslag is a childcare allowance paid monthly by the Belastingdienst to working parents who use a registered childcare provider. It is a percentage refund of what you were charged, subject to a cap on the hourly rate and a cap on the hours, and the percentage falls as household income rises. It is claimed, and it is not granted automatically: you apply through the tax authority with a DigiD, estimate your annual income, and receive the money in advance each month against that estimate.

Three properties matter for anyone arriving on a professional salary. Eligibility turns on working and on the provider being registered, so nationality is beside the point and most skilled-migrant households qualify. The percentage never falls to zero; there is a statutory floor. And because it is paid in advance on an estimate, it can later be reclaimed.

The calculation, step by step

Household: two earners on €162,430 between them, children aged 2 and 4, both in full-time kinderdagverblijf in Amsterdam.

Step one, the hours. A full-time Dutch daycare place runs about 140 hours a month per child. That is the unit everything else is calculated against, because the Dutch system prices childcare by the hour.

Step two, the invoice. The Amsterdam market rate in our data is €12.50 an hour. At 140 hours that is €1,750 a month per child, so €42,000 a year for two. After-school care for a school-age child is billed separately at €530 a month.

Step three, the hourly cap. The refund is calculated against a maximum reimbursable rate of €10.71 an hour for day care. Everything above it is invisible to the scheme. Amsterdam charges €1.79 an hour more than the cap allows, and over roughly 1,680 hours a year that is €3,007 per child, or €6,014 for two, that no reimbursement percentage can reach.

Step four, the percentage. Our engine applies the statutory minimum of 33.3%. Against roughly 1,770 reimbursable hours at the capped rate, that is about €6,300 per child a year, so €12,600 for the household.

Step five, what is left. €42,000 invoiced, €12,600 refunded, €29,400 paid. That is €2,450 a month, and 27.2% of this household's Dutch take-home of €108,149. Dutch income tax and social contributions take 33.4% of the gross before childcare is considered at all.

One honest note on step four. The 33.3% floor applies from about €226,546 of household income upward, and our €162,430 household sits below that line, so on the sliding scale it would draw a higher percentage and pay less than €29,400. We publish the floor because it is the figure that cannot be argued down, and because our house rule is to take the reading that is least flattering to the destination. The 2026 rules lift the floor to 36.5%, which moves everyone's number in the family's favour.

Why the caps matter more than the percentage

People arriving from the US read "33% refund" and mentally apply it to the invoice. The scheme does not work that way, and the difference is thousands of euros.

The percentage applies to capped hours at a capped rate. In a city where nurseries charge above the cap, and Amsterdam does by €1.79 an hour, a slice of the bill is outside the scheme before any percentage is calculated. Raising the reimbursement percentage to 100% would still leave that €3,007 per child on the table. This is a design choice with a purpose: capping the reimbursable rate stops providers from raising prices to absorb the subsidy. It also means the benefit is worth systematically less in the expensive cities where the most highly paid jobs are.

Set against the German answer, the contrast is sharp. Berlin funds the place directly and bills the family €0; Amsterdam bills at market and refunds a share, ending at €29,400. Same continent, same decade, a €29,400 difference on identical hours of care. Our childcare costs by country table shows where every other system lands between those poles.

The five Dutch cities we price

The refund is identical in all five at €12,600, because it is a national scheme keyed to hours rather than to local prices. Every euro of the spread is the market rate underneath. That is worth knowing if a Dutch employer is flexible about which office you attach to.

The other Dutch family payment

Separate from the childcare refund, the SVB pays kinderbijslag for every child living in the Netherlands, with no means test. It is paid quarterly and rises with age: €281.69 a quarter for a child under 6, €342.06 from 6 to 11, and €402.42 from 12 to 17. Annualised across childhood our engine carries €1,368 per child a year, so €2,736 for two.

That is real money and it is far smaller than the German or Norwegian equivalents. There is also a means-tested top-up, the kindgebonden budget, which our model excludes because it does not survive at a professional household income. Netting kinderbijslag against the childcare residual leaves an Amsterdam household about €26,664 down on the year, against $51,200 for a New York household after its own credits.

The mistake that costs new arrivals the most

Every number above assumes the money stays with you. The most common way it does not is the reconciliation.

Kinderopvangtoeslag is paid in advance, monthly, against the income you estimated at the start of the year. The Belastingdienst then settles it against what you turned out to earn. A bonus you did not forecast, a mid-year raise, a partner going from three days to five, equity vesting for the first time: each of those raises household income, lowers the percentage you were entitled to, and turns part of what you already received into a debt. The letter arrives long after the money has been spent on nursery fees.

The fix takes five minutes and almost nobody does it: update your income estimate with the Belastingdienst the same week your pay changes, rather than at the annual settlement. It also pays to log the hours your provider invoices, because the refund is calculated on hours claimed and a mismatch between your claim and the provider's register triggers the same reclaim. Run your own household through the cityparity calculator to see the residual against your salary, read the worked New York vs Amsterdam family comparison for the whole ledger, or start from our cost of raising kids overview.

FAQ

Can expats claim kinderopvangtoeslag in the Netherlands?

Usually yes. The benefit turns on working and on using a registered childcare provider, so nationality is beside the point. A household on a highly skilled migrant permit with both parents working normally qualifies from the month the child starts. The provider has to be listed in the national childcare register, which rules out an informal arrangement with a neighbour, and you claim through the Belastingdienst using a DigiD.

How much kinderopvangtoeslag do high earners get?

The reimbursement percentage falls as household income rises and bottoms out at a statutory floor of 33.3%, which applies from roughly €226,546 of household income upward. Nobody who works and uses a registered provider drops below that floor. At the floor, our engine values the refund at about €6,300 per full-time daycare child a year, and the 2026 rules lift the floor to 36.5%.

Why is my Dutch childcare bill higher than the toeslag calculator said?

Because the refund is calculated against a capped hourly rate, not against what your nursery charges. The cap for day care is €10.71 an hour and the Amsterdam market rate in our data is €12.50, so €1.79 of every hour sits outside the scheme entirely. Over roughly 1,680 hours a year that is €3,007 per child that no reimbursement percentage can touch, and it is why an Amsterdam residual lands near €29,400 for two children.

Do you have to pay kinderopvangtoeslag back?

Sometimes, and this is the part that catches new arrivals. The benefit is paid monthly in advance against the income you estimate for the year, then reconciled against your actual income afterwards. A bonus, a raise, a partner returning to work or a change in hours can all turn an advance into a debt, and the Belastingdienst reclaims it. Update your estimate the moment your income changes rather than waiting for the annual settlement.

More in this series

Sources. Scheme rules, the reimbursement scale and the maximum hourly rates come from Rijksoverheid's kinderopvangtoeslag pages and the Belastingdienst's toeslag tables, which are also where a claim is filed. Kinderbijslag amounts come from the SVB's child benefit amounts. Amsterdam market rates come from published provider price lists. Field-level provenance and dates are in data/_meta.json; the method is on the methodology page.

Figures here come from cityparity's per-city engine and were current at publication; hourly caps, reimbursement percentages and provider rates move, so treat any single number as a strong estimate and run your own inputs. See the methodology.