A childminder can be a business owner for income tax, but not automatically. If you are, your income counts as business profit and you get entrepreneur's allowances, such as the self-employed deduction and the SME profit exemption. If you are not, you declare your income as income from other activities and those allowances fall away.
The tax authority and the courts look at your whole situation: who you work for, how independent you are, how many hours you put in and what risk you run. Case law goes both ways. That is why your own records are the most important evidence.
In short
- Business owner or not makes a big difference for income tax. Only a business owner gets the self-employed deduction (€ 1,200 in 2026, with 1,225 hours) and the SME profit exemption (12.7% in 2026).
- A childminder with eight children from six families, her own rates and her own risk was a business owner. A grandmother who only cared for her three grandchildren was not.
- One court of appeal found a childminder too dependent on the childminder agency to be a business owner. So keep a record of what you decide yourself, how many parents you have and how many hours you work.
In this article
Why does it matter whether you are a business owner as a childminder?
Because only a business owner gets entrepreneur's allowances. If the tax authority considers that you are not a business owner, you declare your income as a childminder as income from other work (Ondernemersplein, step-by-step plan for becoming a childminder). In the law this is called income from other activities.
The self-employed deduction is € 1,200 in 2026, if you are a business owner and meet the hours criterion (Belastingdienst, self-employed deduction 2026). The hours criterion means that you spend at least 1,225 hours a year on your business, and more than on other work (Belastingdienst, hours criterion). You can read more about those rules in hours criterion and self-employed deduction 2026.
The SME profit exemption is 12.7% of profit after entrepreneur's allowances in 2026 (Belastingdienst, SME profit exemption 2026). There is no hours criterion for it, but you must be a business owner. In 2026 both allowances give a benefit at a rate of 37.56%. An example: with a profit of € 20,000, together they save about € 1,350 in tax.
For VAT it makes little difference. Childminding through a registered childminder agency is exempt from VAT (VAT Act 1968, article 11(1)(w)). If you only provide exempt care, you do not charge VAT and do not reclaim VAT (Ondernemersplein).
What does the tax authority look at?
At your whole situation, not at one point. The tax authority mentions, among other things: do you make a profit, how independently do you work, how much time do you put in, how many clients do you have, how do you make yourself known and do you run a business risk (Belastingdienst, when are you a business owner).
The tax authority also says: if your activities take place within the family sphere, you are not a business owner for income tax (Belastingdienst). For a childminder who only cares for relatives' children, that is the first question.
The Chamber of Commerce uses its own, simpler test. You must register as a childminder if you care for children, are paid per hour for it and do business with people other than family or friends (Ondernemersplein). Registration with the Chamber of Commerce therefore does not automatically mean you are a business owner for income tax.
When did the court see a childminder as a business owner?
When the childminder worked for many parents, set her own rates and hours and ran a real risk. In 2017 the District Court of The Hague ruled on a childminder who had worked since 1990. In one year she cared for eight children from six parents, through two childminder agencies, on up to five days a week (ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2017:15433).
The court saw business risk. If parents do not pay, the childminder receives nothing, because the agency only passes the money on. When ill or on holiday she has no income, parents can cancel and she is liable for damage. She set her own hours and rates and also found her own clients (ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2017:15433).
The hours criterion was met as well. She submitted an overview of 1,377 direct and 222 indirect hours, and the court found that plausible. She got the self-employed deduction. In doing so, the court followed the Court of Appeal of The Hague, which also saw a childminder as a business owner in June 2017 (ECLI:NL:GHDHA:2017:2123).
When was a childminder not a business owner?
When the care stayed within the family. In 2016 the Court of Appeal of 's-Hertogenbosch ruled on a grandmother who cared for her three grandchildren four days a week, through a childminder agency. Her son was her only client, she did not look for other parents and stopped when he no longer needed care (ECLI:NL:GHSHE:2016:533).
The court found the risk very small, and the investment too. A diploma and a contract with a childminder agency did not change that. Her income was income from other activities, without the self-employed deduction, the start-up deduction or the SME profit exemption (ECLI:NL:GHSHE:2016:533).
The Court of Appeal of Arnhem-Leeuwarden went even further in 2016. According to that court, the strict rules and the agency's supervision made a childminder too dependent to be a business owner. That she worked continuously, ran a small bad debt risk and could set her own hourly rate did not change that (ECLI:NL:GHARL:2016:6586).
So the courts in The Hague and Arnhem-Leeuwarden weighed the role of the childminder agency differently. In The Hague the agency was mainly an intermediary that passed on payments. In Arnhem-Leeuwarden the agency was a supervisor that took away independence. Which line a court follows depends on the facts of your case.
What has changed for childminders since 2026?
The rules have become stricter. Since 1 July 2026 a childminder may register with at most two childminder agencies. You also write your own pedagogical work plan, follow 7 hours of training each year and have a back-up who can be with you within 15 minutes (Ondernemersplein, step-by-step plan for becoming a childminder).
You may care for at most 6 children a day, aged 0 to 13. Your own children under 8 count (Ondernemersplein). How courts will weigh the new rules when deciding whether you are a business owner is not yet known.
The number of childminders has been falling for years. In January 2021 there were 22,675 childminder locations in the National Childcare Register, in July 2026 there were 13,322. In Q2 2026, 65,000 children with benefit went to a childminder, 9.3% fewer than a year earlier (SZW, quarterly report Q2 2026).
Parents being able to receive benefit for childminding is relatively new. Childminding only became eligible for the subsidy in 2005 with the Childcare Act. After that it grew quickly, because more parents and childminders knew they could get the benefit (Bettendorf, Jongen and Müller, 2015).
How do you show that you are a business owner?
With documents. In a 2021 case at the District Court of The Hague a childminder lost because she had submitted too few documents to make her entrepreneurship plausible. As a result, the court could not judge whether her case resembled other cases in which childminders were business owners (ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2021:14716).
- Keep a record of your hours, with direct hours (care) and indirect hours (administration, training, finding clients, contact with parents).
- Keep the agreements with each parent and the childminder agency. You must keep your records for at least 7 years (Ondernemersplein).
- Record that you set your own rate and working hours yourself, and what you arrange when you are ill.
- Show how you find new parents: a website, a profile, flyers or word of mouth.
- Keep your business liability insurance policy. As a childminder you need one (Ondernemersplein).
If you mainly care for relatives' children, the chance that you are a business owner is small, even with many hours. In that case, put your income in your tax return as income from other activities, and deduct the actual costs from it.
Sources
- Ondernemersplein (KVK and RVO), Stappenplan gastouder worden (Step-by-step plan for becoming a childminder), accessed 1 November 2026. ondernemersplein.overheid.nl
- Belastingdienst, Zelfstandigenaftrek 2026 (Self-employed deduction 2026), accessed 1 November 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- Belastingdienst, Urencriterium (Hours criterion), accessed 1 November 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- Belastingdienst, Mkb-winstvrijstelling 2026 (SME profit exemption 2026), accessed 1 November 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- VAT Act 1968 (Wet op de omzetbelasting 1968), article 11(1)(w), version of 1 January 2026. wetten.overheid.nl
- Belastingdienst, Wanneer bent u ondernemer voor de inkomstenbelasting? (When are you a business owner for income tax?), accessed 1 November 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- District Court of The Hague, 22 September 2017 (published 29 December 2017), ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2017:15433. rechtspraak.nl
- Court of Appeal of The Hague, 27 June 2017, ECLI:NL:GHDHA:2017:2123. rechtspraak.nl
- Court of Appeal of 's-Hertogenbosch, 18 February 2016, ECLI:NL:GHSHE:2016:533. rechtspraak.nl
- Court of Appeal of Arnhem-Leeuwarden, 17 August 2016, ECLI:NL:GHARL:2016:6586. rechtspraak.nl
- Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, Tweede kwartaalrapportage kinderopvang 2026 (Second childcare quarterly report 2026), tables 1 and 7. open.overheid.nl
- Bettendorf, L. J. H., Jongen, E. L. W. & Müller, P. (2015). Childcare subsidies and labour supply: evidence from a large Dutch reform. Labour Economics, 36, 112-123. doi.org
- District Court of The Hague, 15 December 2021, ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2021:14716. rechtspraak.nl