When can I deduct maintenance contributions?

The taxpayer receives a pension arrears payment for invalidity from their pension fund, including a child's pension. Social services request reimbursement for amounts advanced to the children for their upkeep, a request unsuccessfully contested by the taxpayer. The taxpayer fails to fulfil their tax obligations and receives an official assessment. They file a claim by submitting a tax return and are assessed to their satisfaction. Shortly thereafter, they receive the final judgment ordering them to reimburse social services. The taxpayer requests a revision of their assessment.

The tax authorities refuse the request for review.

Federal judges recall that maintenance contributions are deductible from the payor's income. When a public authority advances maintenance contributions for a minor child, they are taxable to the recipient, as if they were paid by the payor. The reimbursement of advances by the payor is also deductible from income, even if the advance and reimbursement do not fall within the same tax period (see para. 6.1).

Federal judges continue on the realisation of income (and deductions). As with income, deductions are deductible when the taxpayer is obliged to pay them. For maintenance payments, the system is as follows: they must actually be paid to be tax-deductible; a mere obligation to pay does not justify the deduction of amounts due. In terms of timing, actual payment is what counts, not enforceability. The taxpayer must prove payment to obtain the tax deduction.

During the disputed tax period, the taxpayer had disputed owing the repayment of advances. It was only three years later that they were definitively ordered to repay them. Therefore, during the tax period, they had not actually repaid the public authority.

The judgment is in German. It is a Zurich case.

TF, arrêt 9C_662/2024, du 6 novembre 2025