Allowance calculator Netherlands 2026

A single person earning €3,200 gross a month and paying €1,100 basic rent gets about €0 healthcare allowance and €117 rent allowance a month in 2026, on top of roughly €2,881 net pay. Toeslagen, the Dutch income-related allowances, are paid by the Dienst Toeslagen (part of the Tax and Customs Administration) to help with four costs: compulsory health insurance, rent, raising children and registered childcare. All four look at the same thing: your assessment income for the calendar year, which for an employee is close to gross salary plus holiday allowance. A partner who counts as your toeslagpartner adds his or her income. This calculator runs that income through all four schemes at once, with the 2026 amounts published by the Dienst Toeslagen, the new rent allowance formula and the rules most tools skip: nothing is paid below €24 a year, and assets above the limit on 1 January cancel the right for the whole year.

How the calculation works

Enter your gross monthly salary as it appears on your payslip. The calculator multiplies it by twelve and adds the 8% holiday allowance (vakantiegeld), because the allowances are based on annual income. That gives the assessment income, toetsingsinkomen in Dutch. Healthcare allowance is the difference between a fixed standard premium of €2,119 and a norm premium that rises with income above €29,736. Rent allowance reimburses three slices of your basic rent and then deducts an income correction. The child-related budget starts from a maximum per child and drops by 7.6% of income above a threshold. Childcare allowance pays a percentage of your costs up to a maximum hourly rate, read from the 2026 table.

Three typical expat households

A newcomer on a single salary of €3,200 with a €1,100 apartment receives €117 a month in allowances, mostly because rent allowance in 2026 no longer excludes rents above the cap; it simply counts the rent up to €932.93. A family with one earner on €3,800, a partner without income and a toddler, renting for €1,300, gets €385. Two earners on €4,500 and €3,500 with a baby in day care at €12.50 an hour get only childcare allowance, €809 a month, which is the one allowance that continues up to the highest incomes.

The 30% ruling and your assessment income

Many expats assume their gross salary rules them out. With the 30% ruling, part of the package is paid as a tax-free reimbursement, and only the taxable part counts as wage. Your assessment income is therefore lower than your contract salary. Check your annual statement (jaaropgaaf): the taxable wage on it, not the gross package, is the figure to enter in the individual calculators. The 30% ruling calculator shows how your package splits.

Rent allowance changed in 2026

Until 2025, a basic rent above the maximum rent limit meant no rent allowance at all, which excluded most private-sector apartments. That hard limit is gone. Since 2026 the rent is counted up to €932.93, the part you pay yourself is a fixed base rent of €202.52 for a single person or €200.71 for larger households, service costs no longer count, and income works through a correction of 27% or 22% above a reference income. The home must still be self-contained, with its own front door, kitchen and toilet. See the rent allowance table for amounts by rent and income.

Checked against the official worked examples

The Dienst Toeslagen publishes worked examples for each allowance in its 2026 calculation leaflets. All fourteen are built into the engine as tests; the table below is recalculated every time the site is published.

What this calculator does not cover

It assumes an employee living in the Netherlands for the whole year. It does not apply country factors for people living abroad, income of adult co-residents or children above the exemption, a partner who is not insured in the Netherlands, or a partner who arrives halfway through the year. For those cases the official trial calculation (in Dutch) asks the extra questions. For repayments, asset limits and partners, read the guides on repaying allowances, asset limits and the benefit partner.

Frequently asked questions