Reporting your care division to the Dutch tax office

You are co-parents for tax purposes if your child spends at least 156 days per calendar year with each parent. That is exactly three days a week, all year. If one of you falls below it, that parent does not count as a co-parent for these schemes, however the care is divided in practice.

The bar sits higher than most parents assume. 156 of 365 days is almost 43 per cent, so a split that feels “roughly equal” can still miss it.

Holidays can tip this. A 60/40 schedule with school holidays split evenly lands near 154 days — still short, but close enough that one extra midweek night per fortnight clears it. Count your own schedule rather than trusting these indicative figures; your holiday and public-holiday split decides the outcome.

You report the arrangement in writing, and you do it together. The letter states:

• the name, address, town and citizen service number (BSN) of both parents;
• which days of the week the child is with one parent, and which days with the other;
• the signature of both parents.

So it is the weekly pattern that matters, not a sentence saying “we have a co-parenting arrangement”. That is exactly why most letters come back: the day breakdown is missing, or it contradicts itself.

Subject: Notification of co-parenting arrangement

Dear Sir/Madam,

We are the parents of [child’s name], born [date]. We are co-parents. Our child spends at least 156 days per calendar year with each of us.

Our child is with [parent 1] on: Monday, Tuesday, and alternate weekends from Friday to Monday.

Our child is with [parent 2] on: Wednesday, Thursday, and alternate weekends from Friday to Monday.

School holidays are divided equally.

[Name, address, town, BSN parent 1] — signature

[Name, address, town, BSN parent 2] — signature

Write it in Dutch if you can; the Belastingdienst corresponds in Dutch. In CoParIzi you export this day breakdown straight from your schedule, so the letter and the calendar cannot drift apart.

Allow around five weeks. Send the notification well before the point at which you want the effects to land, and bear in mind that mid-year changes work back through benefits already paid out.

The same threshold returns for childcare benefit, for the child budget that follows the child benefit registration, and for the income-related combination tax credit. Who receives what is set out in benefits and co-parenting in the Netherlands.

We count days, not tax. Conditions and amounts change every year; check your own situation with the Belastingdienst or an adviser before you send anything.