cityparity

Kinderopvangtoeslag for expats: the numbers, worked line by line

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

For two children in full-time Amsterdam daycare, a household earning €162,430 pays €19,323 after a €22,677 kinderopvangtoeslag refund on its €42,000 invoice. The refund depends on household income, the number of children and the hourly cap. Here is how those rules turn a nursery invoice into the bill parents keep.

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 €11.23 an hour for day care. Everything above it is invisible to the scheme. Amsterdam charges €1.27 an hour more than the cap allows, and over roughly 1,680 hours a year that is €2,134 per child, or €4,267 for two, that no reimbursement percentage can reach.

Step four, the percentage. At this household's €162,430 income, the 2026 table reimburses 38.5% for the first child and 81.7% for the second. Applied to €18,866.40 of eligible fees per child, that returns €7,264 and €15,414, or €22,677 for the household.

Step five, what is left. €42,000 invoiced, €22,677 refunded, €19,323 paid. That is €1,610 a month.

The 2026 first-child rate reaches its 36.5% floor at €165,658 of household income. The subsequent-child rate keeps falling, reaching 68.2% at €235,698. This example uses the rates at €162,430, rather than applying a high-income floor to a household below it.

Why the caps matter more than the percentage

People arriving from the US often apply the refund percentage to the whole invoice. The hourly cap means part of the fee is outside the calculation.

The percentage applies to capped hours at a capped rate. In a city where nurseries charge above the cap, and Amsterdam does by €1.27 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 €2,134 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.

Berlin funds Kita tuition directly, with meal charges left for parents. Amsterdam bills at market rates and refunds a share, leaving this household €19,323 a year. Our childcare costs by country table shows where other systems land.

The five Dutch cities we price

The refund is €22,677 in Amsterdam and Utrecht, €22,357 in The Hague, €20,194 in Rotterdam and €19,905 in Eindhoven. The national percentage schedule is the same; the eligible fee is capped at the lower of the invoice and the hourly ceiling. 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: €298.40 a quarter for a child under 6, €362.35 from 6 to 11, and €426.29 from 12 to 17, per the Algemene Kinderbijslagwet as amended from 1 August 2026. Our engine stores one rate for every age and takes the under-6 band, the lowest, so it carries €1,194 per child a year and €2,388 for two, a little under what an older child actually draws.

The model also includes the income-tested kindgebonden budget. It is zero at this example's income. Subtracting the two children's €2,388 kinderbijslag from the €19,323 childcare residual leaves €16,935 a year.

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 2026 first-child rate reaches its 36.5% floor at €165,658 of household income. The subsequent-child rate keeps falling, reaching 68.2% at €235,698. This example uses the rates at €162,430, rather than applying a high-income floor to a household below it.

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 2026 cap for day care is €11.23 an hour and the Amsterdam market rate in our data is €12.50, so €1.27 of every hour sits outside the scheme entirely. Over roughly 1,680 hours a year that is €2,134 per child that no reimbursement percentage can touch.

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.