Parents will be able to claim back up to £1,200 a year - or 20% of childcare costs - from 2015, under plans set to be unveiled by the government.
Parents will be allowed to claim back 20% out of a total of around £6,000 - what they believe to be the average annual price of a childcare place.
It will apply to all parents in England and Wales earning up to £150,000.
BBC Newsnight has learned ministers will invest a total of £1.4bn in the new childcare support arrangements.
Half the funding will come from the abolition of the previous system of government childcare vouchers, and in part by funding switched from elsewhere in Whitehall.
This new policy will also only be available to those parents who both work - where one parent does not work, they will not receive support - said to be underlining the government's support for making work pay.
Sources across Whitehall were said to be "jubilant" a deal had been struck, with one telling BBC Newsnight the four month negotiations had been a "monumental battle".
Britain has some of the highest childcare costs in the world, with many people with two or more children saying it did not make financial sense for both parents to work.
In a recent report the Daycare Trust found childcare costs were "rising at significantly above the rate of inflation in England".
The pledge to help working families with childcare costs was announced by Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg in their Mid-Term Review in January.
But it has taken months of negotiations to pin down the details of the package, which will be announced the day before the Budget.
The government has already announced changes to allow nurseries and childminders in England are to be allowed to look after more children, which it says will make more childcare places available and reduce costs for parents in the "long term".
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