When the parents are divorced or separated, it is the one with whom the children usually live who must count them as dependents for his tax return. This allows him to benefit from an additional half share for each of the first two dependent children, and a full share from the third.
If this parent does not live as a couple, his first dependent child entitles him to a full share of the family quotient. The other parent cannot count the children in his charge, but he can deduct from his taxable income the alimony he pays to his “ex” for their education and maintenance.
This pension is fully deductible as long as the children are minors. For his part, the parent having charge of the children must include the pension received in his taxable income.
Parents whose children live alternately in the home of each of them can share their tax burden. Each then benefits from an additional quarter share for the first two children in alternating residence, as well as a half share from the third child, or from the first dependent child for “single parents”. One parent pays child support to the other? In this case, it is neither deductible for the person who pays it nor taxable for the person who receives it.
Compulsory choice after 18
Adult children can continue to be attached to their parents’ tax household until they are 21, or until they are 25 if they are students (if these attached children themselves have taxable income, the parent must then declare them with his own). For the period from his 18th birthday until the end of 2022, a child who turned 18 in 2022 can only ask to be attached to the parent who counted him as a minor on 1er January 2022.
In subsequent years, he may be attached to the household of either parent. In other words, the parents cannot continue to share the tax burden of an adult child, even if the latter continues to live alternately with one and with the other.
On the other hand, they will both be able to deduct alimony – up to 6,368 euros – if neither of them attaches it to their tax household, and if they both continue to provide for their families. needs. Which is generally more advantageous than the solution of attaching it to the home of one of the parents.