Tax benefits for families
Parents will benefit from these tax advantages from 2025
Children cost a lot of money until they grow up. To ease the financial burden on parents, there are various tax breaks for families. These include child-related allowances such as the child allowance and allowances for childcare, education or training needs, for example. You can find out which tax benefits you can claim when you submit a tax return in this section.

Which is better: child benefit or the tax allowance for children?
All parents of biological and adopted children are entitled to child benefit from the birth of the child. You can also find out how to apply for child benefit here on the family portal. Child benefit is paid out every month.
If you have a high household income, you often benefit more from child-related allowances such as the child allowance and the care, education and training allowance.
You don't need to worry about when the child allowance is more favorable for you. When you fill in the "Child annex" on your tax return, the tax office automatically checks which option - child benefit or tax-free allowance - is more tax-efficient for you. The child allowance is automatically calculated by the tax authorities and then taken into account retrospectively as part of the annual income tax adjustment.
To ensure that the tax-free allowance for children has an immediate tax-reducing effect, you can register the tax-free allowance for children with the tax office immediately after the birth of your child. The tax allowance for children is recorded by the tax office and sent to the employer. The employer then takes this allowance into account when paying wages and salaries, based on the information provided by the tax office. It is not necessary to apply directly to the employer for a wage tax reduction.
How high are the allowances for children?
The basic tax-free allowance and the child tax-free allowance were increased in November 2024 with retroactive effect from January 1, 2024 - and will remain at this level for 2025.
Note the following special features: The adjustment to the basic tax-free allowance and the child tax-free allowance for 2024 is taken into account in the December salary. You will therefore receive the reduction for the whole of 2024 in December. From January 2025, the allowances will then be taken into account again on a monthly basis.
im Jahr 2024 (rückwirkend zum 01.01.2024) | insgesamt für Eltern | pro Elternteil |
---|---|---|
Kinderfreibetrag | 6.612 Euro | 3.306 Euro |
Freibetrag für Betreuungs-, Erziehungs- oder Ausbildungsbedarf | 2.928 Euro | 1.464 Euro |
Insgesamt | 9.540 Euro | 4.770 Euro |
im Jahr 2025 | insgesamt für Eltern | pro Elternteil |
---|---|---|
Kinderfreibetrag | 6.672 Euro | 3.336 Euro |
Freibetrag für Betreuungs-, Erziehungs- oder Ausbildungsbedarf | 2.928 Euro | 1.464 Euro |
Insgesamt | 9.600 Euro | 4.800 Euro |
ab 2026 | insgesamt für Eltern | pro Elternteil |
---|---|---|
Kinderfreibetrag | 6.828 Euro | 3.414 Euro |
Freibetrag für Betreuungs-, Erziehungs- oder Ausbildungsbedarf | 2.928 Euro | 1.464 Euro |
Insgesamt | 9.756 Euro | 4.878 Euro |
Frequently asked questions about tax relief for families
Where can we find help and advice?
You can find detailed tax information for private individuals and especially for families and children on the Internet portal of the Finanzverwaltung für Nordrhein-Westfalen
.