Which costs for pregnancy and childbirth can I claim?
All costs incurred due to pregnancy and the birth of a child can be claimed for tax purposes. These costs are general extraordinary expenses and can be deducted as extraordinary expenses like medical expenses. However, the tax office will deduct your reasonable burden. You must first deduct any amounts reimbursed by your health insurance.
The expenses recognised by the tax office include, for example, costs for a midwife, a doctor or medication. Travel expenses to the doctor or hospital or after the birth to the paediatrician are also recognised. You can also deduct course fees for antenatal classes and postnatal exercise, if they are medically necessary. Your doctor must certify this. Expenses for artificial insemination are also recognised, but not after voluntary sterilisation.
In principle, you can claim all costs related to pregnancy and childbirth, provided they are medically necessary, i.e. prescribed by a doctor. You can also claim expenses for non-prescription medication, e.g. iron supplements, as soon as they are prescribed by a doctor.
For journeys by public transport, the actual costs incurred are recognised. For journeys by private car, you can deduct the costs at the business travel allowance rate of 30 cents per kilometre travelled. Visits to the hospital to see the mother and child are only recognised as necessary in exceptional hardship cases.
Benefits from hospital daily allowance insurance must be offset against your hospital costs, but benefits from sickness daily allowance insurance do not.
Cannot be claimed as extraordinary expenses are, for example, maternity clothing, the initial equipment for the child, furniture for the children's room or moving to a larger flat.
If you need a household help after the birth, you can deduct the expenses for this under household-related services. The expenses can be taken into account for tax purposes as follows:
- 20 percent, maximum 510 Euro, for a household help in minor employment,
- 20 percent, maximum 4.000 Euro, for a household help in regular employment and for household-related services provided by self-employed service providers.
If the household help, whether in minor or regular employment, is not employed for the whole year, the maximum amounts of 510 Euro or 4.000 Euro are not reduced on a pro rata basis. If the household help is employed only temporarily for a maximum of three months at a monthly wage of less than 520 Euro, this is not minor employment but short-term employment. In this case, the expenses - as with household-related services - can be deducted directly from the tax liability at 20%, up to a maximum of 4.000 Euro per year. The advantage is that you, as the employer, do not have to pay a flat-rate levy to the mini-job centre for a household help in short-term employment.
You can find more information on the options for deducting household-related services by searching in our tax tool.
(2023): Which costs for pregnancy and childbirth can I claim?
How should I document expenses for pregnancy and childbirth?
You must provide evidence of expenses for medication, remedies, or special courses, such as antenatal classes. The tax office also requires you to prove the medical necessity of the treatments. For this, you need a medical officer's certificate. It is important that the certificate was issued before the costs were incurred.
As soon as you have a certificate from your doctor recommending a particular measure or medication, collect the receipts. You can deduct expenses for pregnancy and childbirth together with other general extraordinary burdens if they exceed your reasonable personal burden. Only at the end of the year will it be clear how much your expenses for remedies and treatments actually are.
You can then use our overview to calculate whether it is worthwhile to include them in your tax return, as the tax office deducts your reasonable personal burden from the actual expenses. Only the remaining amount will reduce your tax.
(2023): How should I document expenses for pregnancy and childbirth?
