You can enter information on children in the Taxfix app in the category "Children".

However, this category only appears if you indicate that you have children in the "About you" section at the beginning of your tax return.

Please note that your child's tax identification number (tax ID) will be mandatory from the 2023 tax year.

You can specify the care of your child in the alternating model (“Wechselmodell”) as follows:

Determine the living situation of your child

Record the basic living situation of your child with the question ‘Where did your child live?’. Then record further details of your child's living situation. These include:

• whether your child has lived at home or abroad.

• the period in which your child lived there. If the alternating model lasted the whole year, the period can cover the whole year (from 01.01. to 31.12.).

• the addresses where your child lived.

• the number of households in the question about household affiliation.

Are you considered a single parent?

We also ask whether there were other adults living in the household with you besides your child. With this question, our app checks whether you are a single parent for tax purposes. If you were living with other adults, you can enter details. Children of full age only have to be entered here if they are no longer entitled to child benefit (Kindergeld).

Receiving child benefit - relief amount for single parents

If you have received the single parent relief amount, you are generally entitled to it for the period during which you received child benefit for your child. Therefore, the exact period is requested to accurately calculate this tax relief.

In general, the relief amount can also be claimed if the child does not permanently live with you, for example, due to educational purposes or because of studying. It is important that the child is registered at your address, but it does not have to be the primary residence for the relief amount to be claimed.

As a rule, the single parent with whom the child is registered as the main resident has this claim. This also applies if the child is cared for by both parents in an alternating model.

If the child is cared for in approximately the same way, the parents can decide between themselves who should be entitled to the relief amount. If the parents do not determine this, the parent to whom the child benefit is paid receives it.

Child Support in the Tax Return

As long as a child is eligible for child benefits, child support payments cannot be deducted for tax purposes. Likewise, received child support payments do not need to be declared as income. For this reason, our app does not request this information.

If the child is no longer eligible for child benefits, voluntary financial support may be deductible as an extraordinary expense under certain conditions. The maximum deductible amount is based on the basic tax allowance for the respective tax year. If the child has own income or assets, this may reduce the deductible amount.

⚠️ This scenario is currently not supported in the Taxfix app, so these expenses cannot be entered.