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Your parents' income

The amount of the supplementary grant depends on your parents' income.

The Tax and Customs Administration notifies us of their income

  • DUO will automatically request details of your parents’ income from the Tax and Customs Administration.
  • If your parents file a tax return, we use their aggregate income. If they don’t file a tax return, we use their taxable income. If your parents don’t make their tax returns in the Netherlands, for example because of work for international organisations, they will have to notify us of their income themselves. They can notify us in Mijn DUO or use the Wijziging ouders form.
  • DUO will send your parents a notification about their income. If their income is incorrect, they will have to contact the Tax and Customs Administration.
  • If we aren’t able to request the income, we will notify your parents. Our letter explains how they can report their income to us themselves.

Additional exemption for income single parent

Does one of your parents lives alone with a child aged under 18, in the Netherlands? If so, your parent can be granted an additional exemption. In this case, an additional part of your parent's income will not be taken into consideration for the purpose of calculating your supplementary grant.

Conditions for additional exemption
  • Your parent cares for a child aged under 18 for at least 6 months per year.
  • This child is registered at the same address as your parent.
  • If your parent has shared custody of the child with the child’s other parent, your parent must be responsible for at least 50% of the care.
  • No other adults are registered at this address. Except any (half)sisters or (half)brothers of yours that are still under 27

Does our message state that your parent is not entitled to the additional exemption while your parent does meet the conditions? Then your parent can report this using the Wijzigingen ouders form, under question 6.

Which income year?

DUO calculates the supplementary grant per calendar year. We use the income from 2 years before that calendar year. So for the 2025 supplementary grant the reference year is 2023.

Income decreased

If your parents' income has decreased, they can apply for reference year rescheduling. That means that we will look at a later income year. The supplementary grant may be higher as a result. 

If the reference year is 2022, it can be transferred to 2023 or 2024.
If the reference year is 2023, it can be transferred to 2024 or 2025.

If their income has not been established by the Tax and Customs authority yet, your parents can send us an estimate. As soon as the Tax and Customs authority informs us about their actual income, we will take a new decision. If your parents’ income turns out higher than the estimate, you may have received too much supplementary grant. If so, you are due to pay back the overpaid amount.

There is one condition for the transfer of the reference year: the joint income must have decreased by 15% or more compared to the reference year.

Your parents can apply for a transfer of the reference year through Mijn DUO. 

Debt restructuring or bankruptcy

Your parents can write to DUO asking us to take their debt restructuring or bankruptcy into account. They must provide supporting documents. The postal address is:

Dienst Uitvoering Onderwijs (DUO)
PO Box 50021
9702 BA Groningen

Income outside of the Netherlands

Usually we can’t request information from the Tax and Customs Administration about income earned abroad. Your parents will have to inform DUO of their gross annual income themselves. They will receive a letter about this every year. In that letter we ask them to send their income details including supporting documents. They can do this through Mijn DUO. Calculating your supplementary grant may take some time. Processing times for the supporting documents are often longer than 8 weeks.

No access to Mijn DUO

If your parents have no access to Mijn DUO, they can use the 'Statement of income from outside the Netherlands' form. If both your parents receive a letter, they will each need to send in a form.

Supporting documents regarding income earned outside the Netherlands

The supporting documents required are an income statement from the tax authority of the relevant country or an income tax assessment. This supporting document is also needed if your parent has no income.

The statement must be submitted in Dutch or English. Is the statement in another language? Then please send a translation together with a copy of the original statement.

  • Does the income statement list an income lower than the equivalent of €8.000? Then we will also need supporting documents showing the untaxed benefits or allowances that your parent received as well.
  • Is your parent a business person and does the income statement not state a basis for profit tax? In that case, your parent will need to include an accountant’s statement detailing the profit tax. That can be the profit statement before profit tax.
  • Does your parent live outside the EU/EEA and is your parent unable to provide an income statement from the Tax and Customs Administration? Then your parent must send a copy of the annual income statement or a copy of all salary slips.
  • Is your parent applying for reference year rescheduling to a year that has not yet ended? Then your parent must send salary slips of the months that have already passed.
  • Have your parents been granted a tax return postponement because they are self-employed? Then an accountant's statement is required. This statement should show the income (and business profits) for the full year.
  • In some countries the tax authorities use a different term for income statement. In the table below you will find further information from several countries about the necessary supporting documents.
Country Name of required supporting document
Belgium
  • Aanslagbiljet in de personenbelasting (issued by the Federale overheidsdienst Financiën – Fiscaliteit. In French: Service Public Fédéral Finances)
Germany
  • Bescheid für [year] über Einkommensteuer, Solidaritätszuslag und Kirchensteuer (issued by the Finanzamt)
France
  • Avis d’impôt [year] Impôt Sur Les Revenus de l’année [year] (issued by Centre des Finances Publiques)
Great Britain
  • Digitale Tax Return (100% complete) (issued by HM Revenue and Customs)
  • Employment History (issued by HM Revenue and Customs)
  • A P60 is not accepted
Romania
  • Adeverință De Venit pe anul [year] (issued by ANAF=Agenția Națională de Administrare Fiscală)
Spain
  • Impuesto sobre la Renta de las Personas Físicas [year] (issued by Agencia Tributaria)
United States
  • 1040 U.S. Individual Income Tax Return [year] (issued by IRS= Internal Revenue Service)

Income Caribbean region

Curaçao, Bonaire, Saba or St Eustatius

Do your parents live on Curaçao, Bonaire, Saba or St Eustatius? Then we will send them a letter to pass their income information on to DUO. They only have to do this once - after that we will request their income from the tax authority each year. Having trouble with this? Then your parents have to inform DUO of their income using the Income tax Statement form.

St Maarten or Aruba

If your parents live on St Maarten or Aruba, they have to inform DUO of their income each year themselves using the Statement income tax form. Your parents must include one of the following supporting documents with the Statement income tax form:

  • A statement by the tax authority of the relevant island on the form itself (question 4)
  • The 'Informatie Beheer Groep Studiefinanciering Verklaring Inkomstenbelasting voor belastingplichtigen binnen de Nederlandse Antillen' form (issued by the Curaçao Tax Inspectorate)
  • Authorization Statement income tax for taxpayers on Aruba, Curaçao, St Maarten or the Caribbean Netherlands (issued by the Belastingdienst/Tax Administration)

These supporting documents must be signed and stamped by the local tax authority.

Parents are refugees

Are your parents refugees in the requested income year? We understand that they are unable to provide details of their income. Send us a letter about your parents’ situation in the income year. For example, were they in a refugee camp, underway or in an accommodation centre?

Have your parents been acknowledged as refugees in a safe country? Then we will need a statement of the tax authority of that country from the date of acknowledgement. If your parents have been acknowledged as refugees in the Netherlands, you do not need to take any action, because we will be sent the income details automatically.

Your parents can authorize you

Your parents can authorize you to fill in the forms for the supplementary grant. They can do so with the Authorizating form.

Do your parents have DigiD? Then they can also authorize you to arrange their affairs in Mijn DUO. That can be arranged through DigiD Machtigen (link in Dutch) Link opent externe pagina.

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