Tax advantages for families

You get the allowances until your child turns 18. Under certain conditions even longer:

You can get the allowances until your child turns 21 if

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• Your child is not in an employment relationship and
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• is registered in Germany as a job seeker.

You can get the allowances until your child turns 25 if

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• Your child is training or studying,
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• Your child is in a transition period of no more than 4 months between two periods of training or training and basic military or civilian service,
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• Your child cannot start or continue his or her vocational training because he or she cannot find a training place,
• Your child is doing a voluntary social or ecological year, a voluntary service of all generations, a federal voluntary service or an international youth voluntary service,
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• your child is in development aid or as a service or service abroad.
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Special rules apply to children with disabilities:

If your child is unable to care for himself or herself because of a disability, then you are entitled to the allowance regardless of your child's age, provided that the disability occurred before your child's 25th birthday.

If you incur costs for daycare or childcare, then you can claim two-thirds of these costs as special expenses against tax. You can deduct a maximum of 4,000 euros per child and per year as special expenses from your taxes.

These requirements must be met:

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• The child is your own or your foster child.
• The child is part of your household.
• The child has not yet reached the age of 14. (This age limit does not apply if the child has a disability.)
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Can be considered amounts for

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• the kindergarten,
• a day care center,
• a day nursery or similar facility,
• a childminder or childminder,
• a nanny,
• a governess or educator.

The cost of care must be supported to the tax office by evidence such as invoices or bank statements.

An education allowance is granted if parents financially support their child during education and the following conditions are met:

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• There is an entitlement to child benefit
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• The child is of age and in education
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• He/she is staying away from home during education to complete the education.

The training allowance was raised on 1.1.2023 from 924 euros to 1200 euros per calendar year.

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A family household costs not only money, but also time. If you employ a domestic helper to relieve the burden and save time, or hire craftsmen to carry out repairs, you can claim this against tax:

• For household-related, marginal employment, you can get a tax reduction of 20 percent, up to a maximum of 510 euros.
• If you hire craftsmen to carry out renovation, maintenance or modernization work, you can claim 20 percent of the costs, up to a maximum of 1,200 euros, against tax.
• For household-related employment and services that do not fall into one of these two categories, there is a tax reduction of 20 percent, up to a maximum of 4,000 euros.

If you raise your child alone (and no other adult lives in the household), you can also claim the relief amount for single parents.

The relief amount of 4,260 euros per year is taken into account under the following conditions:

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• You live without another adult person with at least one child in a common household.
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• You are entitled to child benefit or a child allowance for the child.

For the second and each additional beneficiary child, the annual relief amount increases by 240 euros.

How can you get the relief amount for single parents?

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• You can apply for the relief amount in your income tax return. To do this, you must make the appropriate information on the relief amount in the attachment child.
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• To not only with the tax refund to benefit from the relief amount, it is advisable to apply to the tax office for tax class 2. Thus, the relief amount is taken into account directly in the monthly income tax deduction.

If you make maintenance payments for your child, you can claim them against tax under certain conditions up to a maximum amount of 9,744 euros for 2021 and up to a maximum amount of 10,347 euros for 2022.

Prerequisites for this are:

• You are legally obliged to pay child support.
• You are not entitled to child benefit, a child allowance and, if applicable, an allowance for the care and education or training needs.
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• The child is legally dependent on you according to domestic standards.
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• The tax identification number of the child must be provided, provided that this is subject to unlimited or limited tax liability.

Forms for the declaration of maintenance can be found on the Internet site of the Federal Ministry of Finance (German as well as bilingual) in PDF format.

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