How does Alimentatie Inzicht calculate maintenance?

Step 1 — Net disposable income (NBI)

The basis of every calculation is the net disposable income (NBI). This is the monthly income left after deducting from gross income:

• Income tax (box 1, box 3)
• National insurance contributions (AOW, Anw, Wlz)

And after adding:

• Tax credits (general tax credit, employed person's tax credit, IACK)
• Benefits: healthcare benefit, housing benefit, child-related budget

Alimentatie Inzicht automatically calculates the NBI from the entered gross annual income and personal situation.

Step 2 — Child's need (needs table)

The need is the amount required for the child's living costs. It is determined via the official needs tables (Trema guidelines), based on:

• The net family income during the marriage (combined NBI of both parents)
• The number of children in the family; the table does not take the children's ages into account

The child-related budget (including the single-parent supplement) is not deducted from the child's needs. It counts as income of the parent who receives it and therefore increases that parent's capacity (Dutch Supreme Court, 9 October 2015, ECLI:NL:HR:2015:3011).

Step 3 — Capacity

The capacity is the portion of NBI available for maintenance payments. The calculation:

The formula applies from an NBI of € 2,200 a month. Between € 1,950 and € 2,200 a fixed table amount applies (€ 50 to € 116 a month); at an NBI (plus child-related budget) of € 1,950 or less a minimum capacity of € 25 for one child and € 50 for two or more children applies; only the caring parent on social assistance has no capacity. Six fully worked examples of the whole chain are on the page worked examples 2026.

Step 4 — Care discount

The paying parent receives a care discount for the costs they bear themselves on the days the children are with them. The schedule under the Trema guidelines:

With co-parenting (a roughly 50/50 split) there is no separate calculation. The child's needs are shared between the parents in proportion to their capacity, and the contributing parent receives the 35% care discount. Where one parent earns clearly more, a contribution usually remains.

Spousal maintenance — Hofnorm

For spousal maintenance the Hofnorm applies: a rule of thumb used by the Dutch courts, not a statutory rule. It is often summarised as “60% of the net family income”, but one step comes first: the own share of the costs of the children is deducted before that, because the children take precedence (art. 1:400 Dutch Civil Code). The need is therefore 60% of the net family income during the marriage after that deduction, minus the recipient's own income. Leaving out that deduction systematically overstates the need: with a family income of € 4,500 a month and one child, the difference is € 2,700 against € 2,334 — over 15%. The outcome is also an upper limit: the payer's capacity and the ‘jusvergelijking’ — a Dutch fairness check ensuring the recipient is not left with more than the payer after payment — can only lower the amount. The amounts per family income are in the 2026 Hofnorm needs table.

The maximum duration is half the marriage length, capped at 5 years. Exceptions apply for long marriages and families with young children.

Indexation

Maintenance is indexed annually under Article 1:402a of the Dutch Civil Code. The percentage is set by the minister and published in the Government Gazette (Staatscourant). Alimentatie Inzicht automatically applies the current indexation percentages.

Sources and guidelines

• Report on Maintenance Guidelines 2026 (Trema guidelines), Expert Group on Maintenance Guidelines, rechtspraak.nl
• Child maintenance needs tables 2026
• Hofnorm for spousal maintenance
• Income Tax Act 2001 and Tax Plan 2026 (tax credits, bracket rates)
• Spousal Maintenance Revision Act (2020), incorporated in art. 1:157 Dutch Civil Code
• General Child Benefit Act and Child-related Budget Act (2026 amounts)