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Maintenance payments

Avoid retroactive payments
Can I also declare one-off payments?

Avoid retroactive payments

Retroactive payments are not possible, i.e. an amount transferred in August can only be intended for maintenance in August or the following months. If the support payments do not relate to the entire calendar year but only to individual months, the maximum amount for support payments will be reduced accordingly.

Avoid retroactive payments

Can I also declare one-off payments?

Occasional or one-off maintenance payments are also tax deductible as part of maintenance payments to dependants.

For a one-off maintenance payment, the tax office always assumes that it is intended to cover maintenance needs until the end of the year. The maximum maintenance amount is then reduced by one twelfth for each preceding month. If you make a payment in September, the maximum maintenance amount will be reduced by 8/12. However, if you make the one-off payment in January, the maximum maintenance amount will not be reduced. A maintenance payment in January thus secures the full maximum maintenance amount for the whole year, provided the supported person is in need for the entire year. The maintenance payment should always cover living expenses until the next payment. It does not matter whether these payments reach the pro rata maximum amount.

Maintenance payments to a spouse can always be deducted up to the maximum maintenance amount, regardless of when the payment is made.

Can I also declare one-off payments?

Field help

Support period

Enter the period for which you provided maintenance payments (e.g. 01.01.2025 to 31.12.2025).

The support period begins at the earliest with the first actual payment and ends with the last. Retroactive consideration before the payment date is not possible.

Example:

Your adult child completed their training in February 2025 and is then unemployed. From March, you support them financially.
→ Support period: March to December 2025.

Important: In principle, the support period begins at the earliest with the first maintenance payment. Maintenance payments cannot be backdated to months before their payment.

Note: If the payment only starts in December, only 1/12 of the maximum maintenance amount can be considered. A payment in January, on the other hand, can be claimed up to the full maximum amount (for 12 months).

Date of first and last payment

Enter the exact date of the first and last maintenance payment within the specified support period (e.g. 15.01.2025 and 10.12.2025).

This information helps the tax office to determine the timing of your payments and to check whether the chosen support period is correct.

Please note: Only payments made within the calendar year 2025 can be considered for this tax year.

Amount

Enter any maintenance payments you have made to the supported person. Payments should be made by postal or bank transfer so that they can be verified by the tax office.

A maximum of 12.096 Euro can be claimed for each supported person. For each month in which the necessary conditions are not met, the amount is reduced by one twelfth.

Contributions to basic health and nursing care insurance should not be entered here. You can specify these expenses for the person you supported and for whom the contributions were paid. The insurance contributions are deductible in addition to the maintenance payments.

Payments in foreign currency must be converted into Euro according to the Euro reference rate of the European Central Bank. The monthly exchange rates are determined by the Federal Ministry of Finance.

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Lohnsteuer kompakt FAQs

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Maintenance payments

Avoid retroactive payments

Can I also declare one-off payments?

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Lohnsteuerkompakt

Die Online-Steuererklärung

Lohnsteuer kompakt FAQs

With IntelliScan KI betafor effortless refund!

Maintenance payments

Avoid retroactive payments

Can I also declare one-off payments?

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Make your tax return easy with Lohnsteuer kompakt. Ø 1.240 euro refund in under an hour.

With IntelliScan KI^beta
for effortless refund!