Tax glossary
Maintenance payments (Unterhaltsbeiträge)
Maintenance payments are regular payments to a divorced or separated spouse and for children under 18 — the payer can deduct them, and the recipient must declare them as income.
When a couple separates or divorces, an agreement or a court usually sets maintenance payments — for the former partner, for the children or for both. For tax purposes, a simple matching principle applies: what one party may deduct, the other must declare. The tax burden thus shifts from the paying household to the receiving one.
Deductible are regular, periodic maintenance payments to a divorced, legally separated or de facto separated spouse, as well as payments to a parent for minor children in their care. The deduction for child maintenance applies up to and including the month in which the child turns 18.
From the 18th birthday, the logic changes: maintenance for adult children is no longer deductible for the payer and no longer taxable for the recipient. Instead, the paying parent gets the child deduction if the child is in first education and the payer covers the main part of the child's living costs.
Deductible and taxable
The decisive point is that the payments are regular maintenance based on a family-law obligation.
- Periodic maintenance to a divorced or separated spouse
- Child maintenance up to the month the child turns 18
- Bills paid directly, if the agreement defines them as maintenance (e.g. rent of the former family home)
- Maintenance to a former registered partner
Not deductible
Not everything paid after a separation counts as maintenance for tax purposes.
- Lump-sum maintenance settlements — not deductible for the payer, tax-free for the recipient
- Payments from the division of marital property
- Maintenance for adult children
- Voluntary payments without a legal maintenance obligation
- Support for an unmarried partner
Child deduction and maintenance go hand in hand
For minor children, the maintenance deduction and the child deduction are mutually exclusive. If you deduct child maintenance, you do not get the child deduction for that child — the receiving parent gets the full child deduction and declares the maintenance as income. Claiming both will trigger a correction by the tax office, which cross-checks both parents' returns.
Example: divorce with two children
A divorced father in Winterthur pays, under the divorce decree, CHF 1,500 a month to his former wife and CHF 1,000 a month for each of their two children, who live with their mother in Elgg. The older daughter turns 18 in June and starts an apprenticeship.
The father deducts CHF 18,000 of spousal maintenance, CHF 12,000 for the son and CHF 6,000 for the daughter (January to June). The mother declares exactly these CHF 36,000 as income and gets the child deduction for the son. For the daughter, the tax office checks who mainly supports her from the year she comes of age — under the Zurich rules, the child deduction for an adult daughter in education goes to the father if his payments cover the main part of her living costs.
Frequently asked questions: Maintenance payments (Unterhaltsbeiträge)
Do I have to pay tax on child support I receive?
Yes, as long as the child is under 18. In return, you get the full child deduction. From the month after the child turns 18, the payments are tax-free for you.
Can I deduct maintenance I paid late?
Payments are deductible in the year they are actually made. Back payments for previous years are deducted in the year of payment and taxed for the recipient in the same year.
What do I need as proof?
The divorce decree or approved maintenance agreement, plus payment records such as bank statements. In the tax return, you state the recipient's name and address.
We are separated but not yet divorced. Does this apply to us?
Yes. From the year you actually separate, you are taxed individually, and maintenance is deductible or taxable just as it would be after a divorce.
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