Expenses that you inevitably incur (for legal, factual or moral reasons) can be deducted as extraordinary expenses. Extraordinary expenses of a general nature (e.g. medical expenses) are taken into account if they exceed your reasonable personal burden (graduated according to the total amount of income and marital status).
Expenses that are not reduced by a reasonable personal burden are
- Expenses for maintenance and any vocational training for you or your spouse towards persons legally entitled to maintenance for whom neither you nor another person is entitled to an allowance for children or to child benefit. Expenses are deductible up to 12,096 euros in 2025 (11,604 euros in 2024 and 10,908 euros in 2023). The maximum amount is increased by the amount you spend on basic health and long-term care insurance for the person receiving support. The prerequisite for this is that the person receiving support is the policyholder and insured person and that the insurance premiums are paid from the maintenance payments. A person is treated in the same way as a statutory dependant if domestic public funds intended for maintenance are reduced with regard to the maintenance payments. The above-mentioned maximum amount is to be offset against the dependent person's own income and, in principle, his or her own earnings, insofar as they exceed a total of EUR 624. Furthermore, any grants received by the dependent person as educational assistance from public funds or from funding institutions that receive public funds for this purpose shall be offset.
- Expenses to cover the special needs of a child of full age who is in vocational training and living away from home and is entitled to an allowance for children or child benefit in the amount of EUR 1,200 (from 2023) or EUR 924 (until 2022) per year.
- People with disabilities can claim lump sums of between €384 and €7,400 per year from 2021 (€310 to €3,700 per year until 2020), depending on the extent and type of disability. If higher expenses are proven that arise directly as a result of the disability, these can be claimed as an extraordinary burden instead of the lump sum for the disabled, taking into account the reasonable personal burden.
- Certain surviving dependants can apply for a lump sum of 370 euros per year.
- If you personally care for a helpless person in your home or in the home of the person being cared for, you can claim a lump sum for care if you do not receive any income for the care. The care allowance paid to parents for the care of their own disabled child does not count as income. The annual lump sum for care is 600 euros for care level 2, 1,100 euros for care level 3 and 1,800 euros for care level 4 or 5.