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  4. Entlastungsbetrag für Alleinerziehende (tax relief amount for single parents)

Entlastungsbetrag für Alleinerziehende (tax relief amount for single parents)

Entlastungsbetrag für Alleinerziehende
Machine translation of the German page, 2026-09-15. The German original is binding.
The Entlastungsbetrag für Alleinerziehende (tax relief amount for single parents) reduces your income tax. If you are raising your child alone, you do not have to pay tax on a certain amount. For each month in which you meet the following requirements, 355 euros are tax-free. That is up to 4,260 euros per year. The tax relief amount is graduated according to the number of children living in the household and increases by 240 euros per child from the 2nd child onward. You also receive the tax relief amount for months in which the requirements are not met for the entire month. You have the following options: • You can claim the amount in your Steuererklärung (tax return). • You can apply for Lohnsteuerklasse II (income tax class II). Then the amount is already taken into account when tax is deducted from your wages. If you already have Lohnsteuerklasse II, you do not need to do anything. The tax relief amount is then automatically taken into account. You can apply for the increase amounts from the 2nd child onward as Freibeträge (allowances) in the Lohnsteuer-Ermäßigungsverfahren (income tax reduction procedure).

Book an appointment

Book an appointment (service.berlin.de)

Requirements

• Shared household with your child Your child lives in your household. This is assumed if the child is registered there. A requirement for this to be taken into account is providing the identification number (Identifikationsnummer) assigned to the child. • Residence/habitual residence in Berlin You live in Berlin and are registered (gemeldet) here. If you do not have a fixed residence, you instead habitually reside in Berlin. • Entitlement to the child tax allowance (Kinderfreibetrag) or to child benefit (Kindergeld) You are entitled to a child tax allowance or to child benefit for your child. If someone else is also entitled to child benefit for this child, a requirement is that you must be able to have the child benefit paid out to you. The same applies accordingly to the child tax allowance. • You are single (allein stehend) No other adults who share in running the household live in your household. There are exceptions to this requirement for certain people, for example if your adult child lives with you and you are entitled to a child tax allowance or to child benefit for this child. You are not single if the tax splitting procedure ("Ehegatten-Splitting", spousal splitting) is available to you. In the year of separation and in the year of marriage, you are likewise considered single, provided you do not live in a joint household with another adult who is not your child. If you are widowed, it does not matter whether the splitting procedure is available to you.

Documents you need

• For the tax return: Anlage Kind (child annex) to the tax return You will be forwarded to the form center of the Bundesministerium der Finanzen (Federal Ministry of Finance) • Form center > Tax forms > Income tax > Income tax [desired year] > Anlage Kind • For tax class II: Antrag auf Lohnsteuer-Ermäßigung (application for income tax reduction) • For tax class II: Anlage Kinder (children annex) to the application for income tax reduction • Birth certificate of the child

Forms

• Anlage Kind (child supplement) for the tax return www.formulare-bfinv.de/ • Application for wage tax reduction (Lohnsteuer-Ermäßigung), Anlage Kind (child supplement), and other forms for the wage tax reduction procedure www.berlin.de/sen/finanzen/steuern/downloads/artikel.9936.ph

Fees

none

Legal basis

• Einkommensteuergesetz (EStG, Income Tax Act) § 24b - Entlastungsbetrag für Alleinerziehende (tax relief amount for single parents) www.gesetze-im-internet.de/estg/__24b.html • Einkommensteuergesetz (EStG) § 39 - Lohnsteuerabzugsmerkmale (income tax deduction criteria) www.gesetze-im-internet.de/estg/__39.html#Seitenanfang

Who is responsible

The Finanzamt (tax office) responsible for your place of residence is responsible

Responsible for you

Choose a location; the appointment itself is booked on the original page.

Original

German original

Service number 325325 · same path as the original: service.berlin.de/dienstleistung/325325/