Childcare allowance reduces tax-deductible child support payments

FG Münster: Child support is not counted
Münster (jur). The childcare allowance introduced at federal level in 2013 and continued after 2015 only in Bavaria reduces the tax deduction of the partner's unmarried parents for their maintenance. On the other hand, child benefit is not credited against the tax-deductible maintenance payments, as the Finanzgericht (FG) Münster ruled in a ruling announced on Tuesday, August 15, 2017 (Ref .: 14 K 2825/16 E).

In the vernacular and especially by critics also referred to as "Herdprämie" care allowance is intended to support parents who take before the third birthday of their child, no public or publicly funded space in a day care center. It is paid from the 15th month of life and amounted to 100 euros at federal level, from August 2014 then 150 euros per month.

Image: Waldbach-Fotolia

On July 21, 2015, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the federal government lacks legislative competence (Ref .: BvF 2/13, JurAgentur-Meldung vom Urteilstag). After that, Bavaria introduced its own care allowance, also 150 euros per month, at the latest until the third birthday of the child.

The dispute is about a couple in Westphalia who live in a marriage-like community. The father paid the mother upkeep and wanted to claim this in full as extraordinary charges for tax purposes. In 2015, however, the mother also received childcare allowance. The tax office counted this as well as the half of the child allowance due to the mother as income of the mother, which reduces the tax deductible maintenance payments of the father accordingly.

The father's complaint against this was successful only with regard to the child benefit. This served the tax exemption of the subsistence level of the child and was intended for his livelihood. It is also regarded in social law as the income of the child, not the parents, so the FG Münster justification.

In contrast, the childcare allowance should reward parents' care and upbringing and provide compensation for parents who do not use a daycare center for children under the age of three. The money was therefore "suitable and intended to secure the maintenance of the mother". Therefore, it is to be counted as income, according to the FG Münster in his already published written judgment of 11 July 2017. mwo / fle