Kinderalimentatie: How Dutch Child Maintenance Is Calculated in 2026

Dutch child maintenance (kinderalimentatie) is usually the first figure a separating parent looks for, and it is the one most often misread. The civil code (Burgerlijk Wetboek, BW) creates the duty and names the two things that decide the amount. It sets no amount, no table and no percentage anywhere.

Every number in a Dutch child maintenance calculation comes from a separate document: the Rapport alimentatienormen, republished by the Rechtspraak each January and still widely called the Tremanormen. That document is judicial guidance rather than legislation, and keeping the two apart is the difference between reading the tables correctly and reading them as a bill.

This page follows the guidelines' own three steps, reproduces the 2026 tables they rest on, works through the example the Rapport publishes itself, and says plainly where the method stops.

Information last verified on 21 July 2026. This page provides general legal information about Netherlands law and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case.

The duty is in the code, the amounts are not

Both parents owe maintenance for their children under artikel 1:404 lid 1 BW, each according to their own draagkracht, and that duty continues until the child turns 21 under artikel 1:395a lid 1 BW. Artikel 1:404 covers the costs of care and upbringing (verzorging en opvoeding) of minor children, and artikel 1:395a covers the costs of living and study (levensonderhoud en studie) of an adult child who has not yet reached 21. Neither article names a figure.

After 21 the duty does not simply continue in the same form. It falls back to the general provision on blood relatives and relatives by affinity, artikel 1:392 BW, which for a parent bites only in geval van behoeftigheid, that is, only where the adult child is genuinely in need.

Artikel 1:397 lid 1 BW supplies the whole of the method the statute has. It provides that the amount owed takes account, on the one hand, of the behoefte (the need) of the person entitled to maintenance and, on the other, of the draagkracht (the financial capacity) of the person who has to pay. Those two words are the entire statutory content of a kinderalimentatie calculation.

The Expertgroep Alimentatie of the Rechtspraak is blunt about what that leaves open. Its Rapport states that behoefte and draagkracht are open norms, in the sense that no statute or other regulation lays down what they mean. The Burgerlijk Wetboek names the two yardsticks in artikel 1:397 lid 1 BW, behoefte and draagkracht, but sets no amounts: every figure comes from the Rapport alimentatienormen, guidance the Expertgroep Alimentatie of the Rechtspraak publishes each January, which is not law and which a court may depart from in an individual case.

The Rechtspraak states the consequence in its own words on the Expertgroep page: the recommendations are not law, and judges and parties can depart from them in individual cases. The Rapport adds that as a rule a judge will do so only where there are special circumstances. The tables are therefore strong and predictable, and they are still not the rule of decision.

Two further provisions catch situations the tables do not signal. Artikel 1:394 BW makes the verwekker of a child who has only a mother, and a partner of the mother who consented to the act that may have caused the conception, liable for the same costs as though he were a parent. Artikel 1:400 lid 2 BW makes any agreement waiving legally owed maintenance void (nietig), so parents cannot contract the duty away.

Step 1: what the child costs, and the eigen aandeel table

The first step measures the child rather than either parent. What it produces is the parents' combined eigen aandeel in the costs of the children, read off the behoeftetabel published for the year in question.

The income used is not current income. It is the net disposable family income (netto besteedbaar gezinsinkomen) in the last period the parents and the children formed one household, on the reasoning that a child should in principle not be worse off because the parents separated. The income tested child budget (kindgebonden budget) received in that same period is added to that income before the table is read.

Two adjustments follow. Any extra medical costs for the child, whether extra ziektekosten or the premium of a supplementary health policy, are added on top of the table amount. Because the table gives a total for all the children together, that total is then divided across them.

Those are the monthly eigen aandeel figures in the Tabel eigen aandeel kosten van kinderen for 2026. Where an income falls between two lines, the figure is raised pro rata from the lower line rather than rounded to it.

The published table starts at a family income of EUR 2,000 per month, stops at EUR 7,500, and covers up to four children. Those are boundaries of the published guidance rather than a display limit, and below EUR 2,000 the answer comes from the draagkracht minimum in the next section instead of from an invented row.

The provenance of this table is worth stating precisely, because it is usually attributed loosely. The percentages of family income that parents spend on their children come from a joint study by the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (CBS) and the Nationaal Instituut voor Budgetvoorlichting (Nibud), last carried out in 2018 and used unchanged since 2019. The Nibud refreshes the amounts each year for those cost percentages and for kinderbijslag, but the amounts are not indexed in the artikel 1:402a BW sense, and the table is published by the Rechtspraak inside the Rapport rather than by the Nibud.

The 2026 edition shows that these figures do not simply rise every year. Because kinderbijslag was indexed upwards on 1 January 2026, the 2026 eigen aandeel at the same family income comes out up to EUR 10 per month lower than the 2025 figure.

Step 2: what each parent can pay

Draagkracht is worked out for each parent separately. The chain runs from net disposable income (netto besteedbaar inkomen, NBI), plus the kindgebonden budget of whichever parent receives it, less the draagkrachtloos inkomen, which is a corrected bijstandsnorm plus a woonbudget plus any other necessary costs. What is left is the draagkrachtruimte, and a percentage of that ruimte is the draagkracht.

For 2026, below AOW age, the published formula is draagkracht = 70 per cent of [NBI minus (30 per cent of NBI plus EUR 1,365)]. It applies from an NBI of EUR 2,200 per month. Below that threshold the Rapport recommends fixed band amounts instead, so that the result does not jump at a band edge.

At an NBI plus kindgebonden budget of EUR 1,950 or less in 2026, a minimum draagkracht of EUR 25 for one child and EUR 50 for two or more children is assumed. No draagkracht is assumed for a caring parent on a bijstandsuitkering, even where that parent receives kindgebonden budget, while a minimum is assumed for a non-caring parent on bijstand and for either parent on an income at bijstand level.

From AOW age a separate table and a separate formula apply, and for 2026 they are: fixed amounts up to an NBI of EUR 2,430, and above that draagkracht = 70 per cent of [NBI minus (30 per cent of NBI plus EUR 1,525)]. A calculation that ignores whether a parent has reached AOW age is wrong for every payer who has, and it is wrong quietly, because it still returns a plausible number.

Two rules of scope matter at this step. For kinderalimentatie only the paying parent's own position counts and a new partner is disregarded, on the Rapport's reasoning that a new partner can support themselves and a child cannot. The 70 per cent draagkrachtpercentage is also specific to child maintenance: for spousal maintenance it is 60 per cent, which is covered on spousal maintenance.

Where a payer cannot meet every obligation, artikel 1:400 lid 1 BW ranks children and stepchildren under 21 ahead of a former spouse, so kinderalimentatie is calculated first and partneralimentatie only out of what remains. The Rapport puts the same point in its own terms, that kinderalimentatie takes precedence over every other maintenance obligation.

Step 3: dividing the cost, and the zorgkorting

Once both parents' draagkracht is known, the eigen aandeel is divided between them in proportion to it. This is the draagkrachtvergelijking, and it is the step readers most often skip: the parent the children live with carries a share of the cost as well, and that share is part of the answer rather than a courtesy.

The zorgkorting (the care discount) is then deducted from the share of the parent the child does not live with. It is a percentage of the eigen aandeel, excluding the extra costs, set by the average number of days a week the child spends with that parent, holidays included.

• 5 per cent where shared care is less than one day a week
• 15 per cent at an average of one day a week
• 25 per cent at an average of two days a week
• 35 per cent at an average of three days a week

The floor of 5 per cent applies because contact (omgang) is both a right and a duty, so some cost is assumed even where contact is slight. The parent the child lives with is assumed to carry the costs that do not follow the child between houses, such as school costs, sports subscriptions and clothing, and has 30 per cent of the eigen aandeel plus the kinderbijslag available for them.

Co-ouderschap is not a statutory term. The Rapport says so expressly and makes no distinction between a broad care arrangement and co-ouderschap, so an equal split of the days yields a 35 per cent zorgkorting at most rather than a zero figure. Where the parents' combined draagkracht is not enough to meet the eigen aandeel, the zorgkorting is reduced by half of the shortfall.

The example the guidelines publish themselves

The Rapport runs its own three steps through a single case, and every figure below is its own rather than an illustration built here.

At step one there is one child, with an eigen aandeel of EUR 350 per month.

At step two, Ouder I, the parent the child lives with, has an NBI of EUR 2,000 plus EUR 400 of kindgebonden budget, so EUR 2,400. The draagkrachtloos inkomen is a corrected bijstandsnorm of EUR 1,365 plus a woonbudget of EUR 720, so EUR 2,085, which leaves a draagkrachtruimte of EUR 315 and a draagkracht of EUR 221. Ouder II has an NBI of EUR 2,600 and no kindgebonden budget, and after EUR 1,365, a woonbudget of EUR 780 and EUR 200 of other necessary costs, the draagkrachtruimte is EUR 255 and the draagkracht EUR 179.

At step three the combined draagkracht is EUR 400, so the EUR 350 eigen aandeel is split in proportion: EUR 193 falls on Ouder I and EUR 157 on Ouder II. Ouder II has the child on average one day a week, so a zorgkorting of 15 per cent of EUR 350, that is EUR 53, comes off, and Ouder II pays EUR 104 per month.

The gap between EUR 350 and EUR 104 is the reason for reproducing the example. The child costs EUR 350 a month and the monthly transfer is EUR 104, because the resident parent's own contribution of EUR 193 and the EUR 53 of care already given are both part of the answer. Treating the table amount as the bill overstates it here by roughly a factor of three.

These figures are an indication based on the published Rapport alimentatienormen tables, not a calculation of what any particular person owes: the behoefte and draagkracht yardsticks of artikel 1:397 lid 1 BW are applied by the rechter, who fixes the amount in an individual case.

Where the published method stops

The tables are a strong starting point and a poor endpoint. The Rapport is explicit about the situations it handles separately, and each of the following changes the number.

• Netto besteedbaar inkomen is not net salary. It is a constructed figure that folds in allowances and tax effects, so a rough guess at it moves every later number in the chain.
• The behoeftetabel does not exist below a family income of EUR 2,000 or above EUR 7,500 a month, and it stops at four children.
• Parents who never lived together are dealt with by a different behoefte method altogether, because there is no shared household income to measure.
• Children aged 18 to 21, bijzondere lasten, a loss of income, a company car, long term care needs, stepparents and the aanvaardbaarheidstoets each have a chapter of their own.
• Where the parents' combined draagkracht falls short of the eigen aandeel, the interaction between that shortfall and the zorgkorting changes the result again.
• Every constant above is reset on 1 January, so a figure quoted without a year attached to it is not usable.

None of that makes the tables unreliable. It means they answer the ordinary case and hand the unusual one to the rechter, which is what guidance a court may depart from is for.

Agreeing it, ordering it, changing it and collecting it

Where the parents are divorcing, the costs of the care and upbringing of the minor children are a compulsory item in the parenting plan (ouderschapsplan) under artikel 815 lid 3 sub c Rv. The figure therefore has to be settled as part of the petition rather than left for afterwards, and the full contents of that plan are set out on divorce in the Netherlands.

Where a parent or stepparent does not meet the duty, artikel 1:406 lid 1 BW lets the other parent or the guardian ask the rechtbank to fix the amount. Dutch family and maintenance cases are heard by the rechtbank, not by the kantonrechter, whatever the amount at stake, because artikel 93 Rv does not assign family or maintenance matters to the kantonrechter at any value.

The same boundary explains a point readers usually meet from the other direction. A divorce petition must be signed by an advocaat under artikel 278 lid 3 Rv, which exempts only cases filed with the kantonrechter or exempted by a special statute, and a divorce is neither. A divorce with children is therefore never a purely private arrangement, even where the parents agree on every figure.

An amount once fixed is not permanent. Artikel 1:401 BW allows a court order or an agreement on maintenance to be varied or withdrawn on a change of circumstances, or where it rested from the start on incorrect or incomplete information. Artikel 1:408 lid 2 en 3 BW lets the Landelijk Bureau Inning Onderhoudsbijdragen (LBIO) take over collection on request and recover its costs from the payer, and both routes are covered on alimony in the Netherlands.

Maintenance amounts fixed by a court or by agreement change automatically each 1 January under artikel 1:402a BW, and for 2026 the Ministry of Justice and Security set that increase at 4.6 per cent in a beschikking published in the Staatscourant. The change takes effect by operation of law, so nobody applies for it and no new order is needed, although artikel 1:402a lid 5 BW allows the automatic adjustment to be excluded by court order or by agreement.