Increase in the maximum maintenance amount for 2024

Maintenance payments to dependants are deductible as extraordinary burdens of a special nature up to the maximum maintenance amount, without a reasonable burden being deducted (§ 33a para. 1 EStG). This deductible maximum amount is based on the tax-free allowance.

According to the case law of the Federal Constitutional Court (decision of 13.12.1996, 1 BvR 1474/88), compulsory maintenance obligations must be exempt from taxation at least to the extent of the subsistence level. The increase in the tax-free allowance must therefore be applied in parallel to the deduction of maintenance expenses in § 33a para. 1 EStG. In 2023, the maximum maintenance amount is 11.784 Euro.

The maximum maintenance amount is often not granted in this amount, but is reduced. This is by one twelfth for each full calendar month in which the conditions are not met, by the recipient's own income and earnings exceeding the allowance of 624 Euro, and by one, two or three quarters if the maintenance recipient lives in a country with a lower standard of living.

If the maintenance payer also pays contributions to basic health and long-term care insurance for the maintenance recipient, these contributions have been deductible beyond the maximum amount since 2010. It does not matter whether you pay the contributions to the dependant so that they can meet their contribution obligation, or whether you pay the contributions directly to the insurance company via the shortened payment method.