Maternity deductions for income 2023

Are you required to file your income tax return because you have had a child?

The answer is No, but be careful! Review it carefully, as it is easy for you to be interested in doing so due to the deduction of €1,200 per year for each child.

This deduction applies whether the differential fee is positive (your income is payable) or negative (your income is to be returned), or if it is zero.

It is a deduction from the differential fee that you can apply from the 2015 declaration and the increased amount, for daycare expenses or in early childhood education centers, from the 2018 declaration.

How can I make it effective?

• Presenting the declaration of Income Tax.

If your quota is positive, subtract the amount of the deduction from it and enter or request a refund of the difference.

If your differential fee is zero or negative, request the refund resulting from your declaration.

• Or requesting, when you meet the requirements, advance payment. In this case, you will not be able to reduce the amount of the differential tax deduction resulting from your personal income tax return, but don't forget to declare it!

Who owns this deduction?

To women with children under three years of age for whom they have the right to the minimum for descendants who:    

• At the time of birth they receive some contributory or assistance benefit from the unemployment protection system.
• At the time of birth they are registered in the corresponding Social Security or mutual insurance scheme.
• At any time after birth they are registered in the corresponding Social Security or mutual insurance scheme with a minimum period of 30 days of contributions.

Is anyone else entitled to this help?

Yes, they may also apply this deduction when they meet the above requirements:

• Both parents if they are of the same sex (two adoptive males, two females, one biological mother and another adoptive mother or two adoptive mothers).
• The father or guardian in the event of the death of the mother.
• The father or guardian when custody is assigned exclusively to him.

The children who qualify for the application of the deduction are:

• Children by nature, from the month of birth to the month prior to the month in which they turn three years of age, both inclusive.
• Adopted children and minors in foster care, permanent or pre-adoptive, or delegated guardianship for pre-adoptive coexistence.

The deduction will be made, regardless of the age of the minor, during the three years following the date of registration in the Civil Registry.

When registration is not necessary, the deduction will be made during the three years following the date of the judicial or administrative resolution declaring it.

• Minors under guardianship.

The guardian will be entitled to the amount of the deduction that corresponds to the time remaining until the ward reaches three years of age.

What is the amount of the deduction?

The maximum amount is €1,200 per year for each child.

The deduction will be calculated proportionally to the number of months of the tax period after the moment in which you meet the requirements.

However, when you are entitled to the deduction for having registered with Social Security or mutual insurance after birth, in the month in which you reach the minimum contribution period of 30 days, the amount of the deduction corresponding to that month will increase by €150.

Can you request advance payment of the deduction?

Yes, you can request advance payment of the amount corresponding to the maternity deduction without including the additional increase for custody expenses in authorized daycare centers or early childhood education centers.    

Remember that if you already received the advance payment you do not have to submit a new application for the same child. If you meet the new requirements established for this deduction, you will continue to collect it.

Present Form 140. Personal Income Tax. Maternity deduction. Request for advance payment and communication of variations, for:

1. Request advance payment (you must indicate your NIF and, if they have one, that of the children you include in the application).
2. Communicate variations that affect advance collection or non-compliance with any necessary requirement for collection. The submission period, in these cases, is 15 calendar days from when these situations occur.

When the advance payment you have received is greater than the amount of the deduction to which you are entitled, you will have to regularize this situation:

• If you are obliged to declare, in the personal income tax return for the year in which you received the undue payment.
• If you are not obliged to declare, it will be the Tax Agency that will proceed to carry out the corresponding regularization since it has the necessary data.

Increase in the maternity deduction for daycare or early childhood education center expenses.

If you are entitled to the maternity deduction and you paid custody expenses in daycare centers or early childhood education centers, the deduction will be increased by a maximum amount of €1,000.

Custodial expenses are the amounts paid for pre-registration, registration, attendance, during general and extended hours, and food provided that:

• The credit corresponds to expenses that have occurred for complete months.
• They do not consider you income from work in kind as exempt.

In the tax period in which the child turns three years old, you can apply the increase, for the expenses you have incurred after reaching that age, until the month prior to the month in which the second cycle of early childhood education can begin. .

The increase in the deduction may not exceed either of these two limits:

1. €1,000 annually.
2. The total annual amount of the non-subsidized effective expenditure paid in the period (whether or not for full months) to the daycare or educational center. To determine this amount, both the amount paid by the mother and the amount paid by the other parent, adopter, guardian or foster child will be considered.

You will not be able to request advance payment of this increase in the maternity deduction; This will be made effective by submitting the personal income tax return.

Fountain: Tax Agency, Ministry of Finance and Public Function, Government of Spain.

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