Do maintenance payments / child-raising allowance / parental allowance / unemployment benefit / sickness benefit also count as income?

Maintenance payments are generally not counted as income. An exception to this is the so-called real splitting between divorced or permanently separated spouses/life partners. If you pay maintenance to your divorced or permanently separated spouse/partner, you can deduct the maintenance payments up to an amount of € 13,805 per calendar year as special expenses with their consent. The prerequisite is that you and the payee live in Germany. Your divorced spouse/partner must then pay tax on these payments as other income. This does not apply to maintenance payments to your child.

Wage replacement benefits do not count as income. Wage replacement benefits include, among other things

Unemployment benefit I
Short-time working allowance
Insolvency benefit
Sickness benefit
Maternity benefit
Parental allowance under the Federal Parental Allowance and Parental Leave Act
Transitional allowance

Although wage replacement benefits are tax-free, they are subject to progression. They are added to the income of the respective year for the calculation of your tax rate (income + income replacement benefits = income on which the tax rate is based). You must therefore declare them in your tax return.

The receipt of citizen's allowance is tax-free and, as a pure social benefit, is not subject to the progression proviso. The same applies to the federal child-raising allowance, the state child-raising allowance and the municipal child-raising allowances paid by the youth welfare offices to legal guardians. You therefore do not have to declare these benefits in your income tax return.

However, allowances paid to caregivers who are gainfully employed are taxable. Employment is generally assumed if more than five children are cared for.

Legal basis:

§ Section 22 no. 1a in conjunction with Section 10 (1a) of the Income Tax Act (EStG)
§ Section 3 no. 11 and 67 in conjunction with Section 32b EStG