Calculating child maintenance: understand the steps behind the amount

1. Establish the question you need answered

Are you making arrangements for the first time, checking an existing contribution or assessing a change? Each question has a different starting point. Record the child and period the calculation concerns. Include the existing agreement or court order and its original calculation if you have it.

Distinguish a monthly contribution from separate expenses. A school invoice, extra childcare day or holiday does not automatically create a second maintenance amount. Sorting these questions first prevents a discussion about one bill from inadvertently becoming an entirely new financial arrangement.

2. Needs: understand the child's financial circumstances

Needs concern what the child requires. A calculation uses more than a list of last month's receipts: family and financial circumstances also matter. Ask the person preparing the calculation which information and principles are used and which period is relevant.

Record exceptional costs separately, with an explanation and evidence. They might include necessary equipment or a recurring expense outside the usual pattern. The aim is not to treat every family difference as an exception, but to identify where a standard assumption may need discussion.

3. Make both parents' income comparable

Net salary is a starting point rather than a complete financial picture. Have the income and tax components of net disposable income checked. Supply pay slips, annual statements and relevant tax information. With fluctuating income, explaining the trend is often more useful than selecting one favourable or unfavourable month.

Where a parent runs a business, distinguish turnover, profit, wages and owner drawings. A business account alone does not establish a sustainable contribution. Identify missing information too. A calculation using estimated inputs must remain identifiable as an estimate rather than appearing certain because it produces an exact figure.

4. Ability to pay: what can each parent contribute?

Ability to pay concerns the financial resources available for maintenance. Rechtspraak publishes recommendations and annual tables. These are not legislation automatically resolving every exceptional situation. Ask which version was used and whether the income data match it.

Discuss relevant exceptional expenses with an expert and substantiate them. Not every personal expense reduces ability to pay in the same way. For each item, record the obligation, when it arose and available evidence. This makes a legal discussion more concrete than simply saying that everything has become more expensive.

5. Care arrangements and costs across households

The care arrangement may influence the calculation, but it is not a switch that makes maintenance disappear. Describe actual care, including the recurring pattern of nights and days. Ask how the calculation translates that pattern into cost allocation and what assumptions apply.

Include agreements about clothing, activities and other expenses. A shared children's account can help with organisation but needs clear rules for deposits, use and unexpected costs. Check that the same expense has not been included without explanation both in the contribution and in a separate agreement.

6. Hypothetical example: equal days, different incomes

Suppose two parents provide approximately equal everyday care but have substantially different incomes. They agree to meet costs in their own households and expect no further contribution. This may leave unresolved who meets shared costs that do not depend on residence and how differences in financial resources are addressed.

The useful next question is which calculation fits the circumstances and which costs have already been allocated, rather than who is more entitled to money. The example deliberately gives no amount: the complete income, needs and family information are missing. It shows why equal time is not a complete financial arrangement.

7. Read the result alongside its assumptions

Request an explanation you can follow without specialist software: income used, needs, ability to pay, care assumptions and final payment. Check names, children and periods. An input error differs from disagreement about a legal assumption; discuss those separately.

Record who pays whom and how. Discuss annual indexation and how a significant change will be identified. If agreement is impossible, a lawyer can explain whether a court determination or variation is appropriate and which documents it requires.

Practical checklist

• Note the purpose, child and period of the calculation.
• Collect income information from both parents and existing financial arrangements.
• Describe the actual division of care and separately paid child costs.
• Flag missing data and estimates.
• Ask for an understandable explanation of assumptions, year and outcome.