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Published on 06/09/2026 · Sources last reviewed: 06/09/2026 · Our method

Childcare when both parents are cross-border workers: the real calculation

Your CMG will be zero, and that is no reason to skip applying for it — the application is precisely what unlocks the rest. You will front the full social contributions for your childminder every month and be reimbursed a quarter later. And since September 2025, the cheapest childcare arrangement for you is no longer the one everybody recommends.

This article works through one complete case with its assumptions on the table, using the rates in force in 2026. It addresses a specific situation: both parents work in Switzerland, the family lives in France, and the child is cared for on the French side. If only one of you is a cross-border worker, the circuit reverses — covered at the end. Every figure is dated and sourced; the two in-house estimates are flagged where they appear.

Three things you believe that are wrong

The 311 CHF is not childcare support. It is the Geneva cantonal family allowance, the equivalent of French family benefits, paid with your salary — 322 CHF in Vaud. It has nothing to do with your childcare arrangement, and its role is the opposite of what people assume: it is deducted from your French entitlement, not added to it.

A CMG of zero does not mean no help. The CMG — complément de libre choix du mode de garde, the French childcare benefit for a child under six — has had two independent halves since September 2025. The first does indeed fall to zero on Swiss salaries. The second does not.

The French tax credit concerns you even without French tax. It is a credit, not a deduction: it is refundable. A cross-border worker in Geneva whose French tax is neutralised receives a transfer from the Treasury. Many declare nothing, convinced it serves no purpose.

Since September 2025, the CMG has two independent halves

The reform of 1 September 2025 rebuilt only the « rémunération » half, the one covering part of the wage. The « cotisations » half did not move: it covers 100 % of the social contributions of a registered childminder (assistante maternelle agréée), and it is not calculated on your income.

The Caf states it plainly:

Even if the CMG « rémunération » is at 0 euros, you continue to receive the CMG « cotisations », which covers part of the social contributions for employing a childminder.

That is the first thing to grasp, and it is exactly what every piece of content written before September 2025 gets wrong — they describe a bracket scale that no longer exists.

One change only on this half: a ceiling of 8.09 €/hour of gross wage in 2026, above which coverage becomes partial. With a single child you will not reach it: that ceiling is more than double the legal minimum gross hourly wage, set at 3.46 € per hour and per child.

Why your CMG « rémunération » will be zero

That leaves the question of why the first half disappears. The calculation is now hourly. The Caf takes your income, caps it at 8 500 €/month, and applies an effort rate of 0.0619 % for one child. The result is your hourly share: 8 500 × 0.0619 % = 5.26 €/h. It is compared with the reference hourly cost of a childminder, 4.91 €/h.

5.26 is greater than 4.91. The CMG « rémunération » is therefore zero.

Two clarifications that prevent common mistakes. The 8 500 € figure caps the base of the calculation, it is not a cut-off: above it, the maths runs as though you earned 8 500 €. And the real tipping point sits lower, around 7 930 €/month of income, roughly 95 000 € of net taxable income a year for the couple. That last figure is our own calculation from the official formula: the Caf does not publish it. Run the Pajemploi simulator before concluding — parental leave or part-time work in the reference year can put you back below it.

The circuit: Pajemploi bills you for everything, the Caf reimburses quarterly

This is where your situation stops resembling the one described everywhere else.

European regulation 883/2004, which Switzerland applies, designates a primary payer: the country where you work. When both parents are cross-border workers, Switzerland pays first and France pays only a differential allowance (ADI) — the gap between your theoretical French entitlement and the Swiss benefits actually received.

In practice, according to the leaflet the Caf du Jura devotes to this case:

  1. you declare the wage to Pajemploi, which calculates your CMG;
  2. Pajemploi does not pay it to you and bills you for the full contributions;
  3. it forwards the amounts to the Caf;
  4. the Caf compares the French total with the Swiss total and pays you the difference as ADI, quarterly, on receipt of the quarterly certificates completed by your Swiss employer or fund.

Take one thing from this: there is no exemption at source. You front 100 % of the contributions every month. What comes back arrives a quarter later.

The full calculation, three childcare arrangements

Take a couple living in France and working in Geneva, one child of 18 months, 45 hours of care a week — commute included. Two salaries of 7 000 CHF gross, so roughly 140 000 € of net taxable income a year: well above the tipping point.

Registered childminder, 195 h/month averaged, at 5 €/h gross.

Line Amount
Gross wage 975 €
Net wage paid 767 €
Contributions (employer + employee) ≈ 540 €
Maintenance allowance 82 €
What leaves your account each month ≈ 1 389 €

The contribution figure is an order of magnitude, around 55 % of gross: read the « cotisations » line on your Pajemploi statement, that is the one that counts.

Your French entitlement then comes down to the contributions, ≈ 540 €: the CMG « rémunération » is zero, French family allowances are too (they require two children), and the basic allowance falls away on the income test. Against that, 311 CHF, a little over 330 €. ADI ≈ 210 €/month, paid as roughly 630 € per quarter.

Micro-crèche, flat fee of 1 300 €/month. The CMG « structure » is worth 718.41 €/month. French entitlement 718 €, minus 330 €: ADI ≈ 388 €/month.

PSU crèche (public, or private under agreement), 176 hours billed at a maximum of 5.26 €/h, so 926 €/month. No CMG — the two are incompatible — and therefore no ADI.

The French tax credit applies in all three cases: 50 % of the sums paid, capped at 3 500 € per child, so 1 750 €/year, reached without difficulty.

Arrangement What you pay out Total support Out of pocket
Childminder 1 389 € 686 € ≈ 703 €/month
Micro-crèche 1 300 € 864 € ≈ 436 €/month
PSU crèche 926 € 476 € ≈ 450 €/month

Three readings of this table. The childminder is the most expensive arrangement for this profile, against general intuition. The Swiss allowance is only a net gain when your French entitlement is zero: with a childminder and with a micro-crèche it is entirely absorbed by the differential — you receive 330 € + ADI, which is exactly your French entitlement, no more. And everything turns on the number of hours: at 100 h/month the contributions drop below 330 € and the ADI becomes nil.

Micro-crèche: the scale the reform left untouched

The ranking is surprising, and it has a precise cause. The reform targeted direct employment only. The scale for structures stayed flat-rate, by income bracket, and therefore has a floor: above 54 075 € of income it stops falling. A couple on 140 000 € receives exactly the same 718.41 € as a couple on 55 000 €.

That is the whole inversion: the arrangement most often recommended to cross-border families has become the most expensive, and the one assumed to be for comfortable budgets is the best treated.

Watch out for two costly confusions.

A micro-crèche is not a crèche familiale. These are two distinct scales: 718.41 € against 547.39 € in the third bracket for a child under three, a gap of 171 € a month. Most comparison sites conflate them.

Three conditions gate the entitlement, and the first is a cut-off rather than a cap: if the structure charges more than 10 €/hour, you get no CMG at all. You also need at least 16 hours of attendance in the month, and the support never exceeds 85 % of the invoice. Ask for the hourly rate before anything else.

The two tax levers, and the fork that decides

On the French side, the 1 750 € tax credit is worth taking in every case. It is refundable: you receive it even if you pay no tax in France.

On the Swiss side, everything depends on your canton of work.

If you work in a canton covered by the 1983 agreement — Vaud, Valais, Bern, Neuchâtel, Jura, Solothurn, both Basels — your salary is taxable in France only. There is nothing to deduct on the Swiss side, but your French tax is real and the credit applies against it in full.

In Geneva, you are taxed at source, and childcare costs are deductible up to 25 000 CHF per child per year, until the child turns 14. The withholding scale does not include them, however: you must apply for quasi-resident status (quasi-résident), before 31 March of the following year, and reapply every year.

Two caveats, one of which nobody mentions. Ordinary assessment recalculates on your worldwide income at the effective rate: it does not always work in your favour, so have it simulated. And above all, claiming this deduction reduces your family dependant deduction from 13 000 to 10 000 CHF per child. Three thousand francs clawed back: the net gain is never « 25 000 × your marginal rate ».

A third point, which we could not settle and would rather tell you about: when your childcare costs are already partly covered by French support, the Geneva statute does not say whether the deductible base is calculated gross or net of that support. The law requires « documented » costs, nothing more. Confirm it with the cantonal tax administration before building your calculation on it — the answer is free, and cheaper than an adjustment at assessment.

The administrative trap, costlier than the arithmetic

The ADI does not start on its own. The Caf cannot see your Swiss income — your employer files no French social declaration — and without the quarterly certificates nothing is paid. This is by far the leading cause of stalled cross-border files.

Apply for the CMG even knowing it will be zero: the application opens the calculation, and that calculation feeds the ADI.

Key points
  • Your CMG « rémunération » will be zero, but the « cotisations » half remains yours: it is the only French entitlement left standing, and it is worth several hundred euros a month.
  • You front everything, every month; the Caf reimburses quarterly, and only against certificates.
  • The 311 CHF does not add to your French entitlement — it is deducted from it.
  • Since the reform, the micro-crèche is the best-treated arrangement for a two-cross-border-worker couple; the childminder has become the most expensive.
  • The 1 750 € tax credit is refundable: it is yours even without French tax.

Practical advice

  1. Ask a micro-crèche for its hourly rate before you ask about its waiting list. Above 10 €/hour the entitlement disappears entirely.
  2. Read the « cotisations » line on your Pajemploi statement: that is the amount feeding your ADI, not an estimate found online.
  3. Have the quarterly certificates completed from the first quarter. A delay pushes back the whole reimbursement.
  4. Keep your Swiss income up to date with the Caf. Nobody will do it for you.
  5. In Geneva, prepare the quasi-resident application before 31 March, and have the ordinary assessment simulated before filing it.

Common mistakes

« Above 8 500 €, the CMG is no longer paid. » Wrong: that caps the base of the calculation, it is not an exclusion threshold. The maths continues, and simply returns zero on the « rémunération » half.

« The CMG now runs to age 12 for everyone. » No. The extension applies to single parents; for a couple the limit remains six years.

« CMG for a micro-crèche and CMG for a crèche familiale are the same thing. » No: 171 €/month apart.

« I don’t declare my childcare costs, I pay no French tax. » That is 1 750 € a year left on the table.

Frequently asked questions

My CMG will be zero. Should I still apply for it? Yes. Without an application Pajemploi calculates nothing, and without that calculation the Caf has nothing to compare: your differential allowance stays at zero even though you are entitled to it.
Does the Swiss family allowance add to the French benefit? No, it is deducted from it. Switzerland pays first, France pays only the difference. You receive the French total, not the French total plus the Swiss one.
What if only one of us is a cross-border worker? Everything changes. If your partner has French income, the Caf becomes the primary payer: it pays the CMG and the contributions to Pajemploi in the normal way, and the Swiss fund may pay a differential supplement. That is the first question to settle before running any numbers.

Choosing a childcare arrangement is arithmetic, not a matter of taste. The Relokea engine runs the numbers on your actual household — canton of work, income, hours of care — and tells you what is genuinely left at the end of the month.

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Official sources

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