Skip to main content
Practical manual for Income Tax 2023.

11. Annuities for foodstuffs in favour of children

Regulations: Art. 7.k) Law Income Tax

Amounts received by children from their parents in the form of annual alimony payments by virtue of a court decision are exempt.

Likewise, following the amendments introduced to the Civil Code by the First Final Provision of Law 15/2015, of July 2, on Voluntary Jurisdiction, the exemption applies to the amounts received in annual alimony payments agreed upon in:

  • The regulatory agreement referred to in article 90 of the Civil Code, approved by the judicial authority or formalized before the lawyer of the Administration of Justice or in a public deed before a Notary, regardless of whether said agreement derives or not from any appropriate means of legally provided dispute resolution.

  • The equivalent Agreement provided for in the regulations of the Autonomous Communities, under the same conditions as above. That is, approved by the judicial authority or formalized before the clerk of the Court of Justice or Notary.

These amounts are taxed by the payer, who cannot reduce his tax base by the amount of the same. However, the taxpayer who pays this type of benefits, without the right to apply the minimum for descendants provided for in article 58 of the Income Tax Law, when its amount is less than the general taxable base, will apply the tax scales separately to the amount of the annual payments for child support and to rest of the general taxable base.

Regarding taxpayers who are not entitled to apply the minimum for descendants, Resolutions of TEAC of May 29, 2023, Claims numbers 00/08646/2022/00/00 and 00/10590/2022, both issued in an extraordinary appeal for unification of criteria, have established the following criteria:

  • Parents who have been assigned joint custody of their children will be entitled to the application of the minimum for descendants, which will be prorated equally, and it will not be possible to apply the regime provided for annual maintenance payments by the parent who, where applicable, pays them.

  • The parent who pays annual alimony for the benefit of the children and who has not been assigned custody of them, not even on a shared basis, will apply the regime provided for annual alimony, but not the minimum for descendants.

  • The parent who, without having been assigned custody of the children, not even on a shared basis, and without paying annual child support payments in their favor by court decision, contributes , nevertheless, to their financial support, will be entitled to the application of the minimum for descendants based on the dependency criterion referred to in article 58 of the Personal Income Tax Law, a minimum that must be prorated equally with the parent who has custody.

Remember : Please note the treatment for the payer of child support annuities discussed in Chapter 15 and the reductions for compensatory pensions and child support annuities discussed in Chapter 13 of this Manual .