Many cannot imagine life without a child. But the youngsters also cost a lot of money. After all, parents can benefit from tax for some expenses.
Berlin (dpa / tmn) - parents have to spend a lot of money - for food, clothing, daycare, music lessons, tutoring or about semester fees. You can deduct some expenses from tax. To do this, they have to submit a tax return, which they can submit by 2019 until July 31, 2020.
In addition to the form for general personal information, parents can fill out the facilities for extraordinary expenses, special expenses and household-related expenses.
In the child facility, you enter information about minors and adults if they are under the age of 25 and are still training or studying.
"This form has to be filled in for each child," says Isabel Klocke from the taxpayers' association. Parents must therefore enter the son's or daughter's tax identification number.
Benefit from child benefit or child allowance
On line six, parents can note whether they are entitled to child benefit. According to Klocke, those who submitted the application late only "enter the child benefit actually paid out".
There is also a tax-free allowance for childcare, education or training needs (BEA) and a basic tax-free allowance for the child's subsistence level. Adding up the child allowance is a total of 3810 euros per parent.
"This means that parents do not have to tax 7620 euros of their annual income per child," says Uwe Rauhöft from the Federal Association of Wage Tax Assistance Associations. Parents who are not married to each other are entitled to half each.
However, families are only entitled to a child allowance or child benefit. The tax authorities automatically calculate which is more favorable in individual cases when processing the tax return.
The allowance is more for high earners
Child benefit is often more lucrative for families. "Only when married couples with a child have an annual income of more than EUR 66,500 do they benefit more from the child allowance," says Rauhöft.
For parents with a lower income, the child allowance is only an advantage if they live separately. In the case of minors, one parent can often have the BEA allowance transferred by the other.
Childcare expenses can be deducted by parents up to the child's 14th birthday. According to Rauhöft, the tax authorities take into account up to two thirds of the costs - a maximum of 4,000 euros per child per year.
No tax benefits for leisure expenses
Costs for school trips, tennis club or music school are not deductible. "As a rule, parents cannot deduct the cost of tutoring their children from tax," says Klocke. Exception: The parents had to move due to work.
If the move was completed after April 1, 2019, parents can claim a maximum amount of 2045 euros per child for tutoring - "up to half of the amount in full and beyond that to 75 percent," says Klocke.
Children complete training or studies
Parents can deduct the costs of health and nursing care insurance if their children are studying or studying. If children of legal age live abroad during this time, parents up to the age of 25 receive a tax-free allowance of EUR 924 per year.
If the children are older than 25 years, parents can claim maintenance up to 9168 euros for 2019 in addition to the insurance contributions. The Treasury only takes children's income into account if it exceeds EUR 624 a year.
