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What is the deduction for child support?

Aske Buemann

CEO & Co-founder

Deductions for child support payments

If you are divorced or separated from a former partner with whom you have children, you may have already come across child maintenance. This is the amount you pay to the other parent if you have a child and no longer live together. However, not everyone knows that you can actually claim a tax deduction for the child support you pay.

Together with the deduction for spousal maintenance, it is one of the payments you have to keep track of yourself in terms of deductions. There may be cases where it is reported automatically for you. So exactly when you can claim a deduction, we'll guide you through this article.

In this article we will go through:

  • What deductions for child support are
  • Other conditions to be aware of
  • Whether you can get deductions yourself

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What is the deduction for child support?

When you have had children with your partner but have moved apart again, you will typically have to pay child support. This applies primarily if the child lives with the other parent, where child maintenance is your support for the child.

Maintenance is typically a monthly payment to the other parent. You can either set the amount yourself or have it set for you by, for example, the Family Court (formerly the State Administration). You can choose whether you pay the contribution yourself or through Udbetaling Danmark. If you pay yourself, you must report the deduction to SKAT yourself. If you pay through Udbetaling Danmark, you will automatically receive the deduction. However, you should be aware that if some contributions have been paid outside Udbetaling Danmark, you must report them yourself. This may, for example, be extra contributions for baptism or confirmation.

The deduction itself is the contributions you have paid minus an annual rate of, for example, DKK 1,944 in 2020. If you have only paid individual contributions outside Udbetaling Danmark, you must add these contributions to the automatically reported deduction. In both scenarios, there are several important elements to be aware of, which we will go through below.

What else should you be aware of?

There are several other elements to be aware of with this deduction:

  • You must not live with your former partner or the child
  • You must have a 'dependency obligation' towards the public authorities. This is the case, for example, if you are the parent of the child
  • You must have a written agreement with the other parent - either done yourself or through the Family Court
  • The child must be under 18 years of age

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Then we report the deductions, and you get an extra DKK 2,704 back in tax. At the same time, you only pay if you get a tax saving.

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