The Supreme Court has agreed to extend the maternity deduction in the Personal Income Tax (IRPF) to childcare custody expenses.
The Second Section of the Third Chamber of the high court has resolved one of the most controversial aspects of the right to the tax deduction for maternity provided for in the Personal Income Tax Law, that of the extension of the deduction to the expenses of custody of children under three years of age. in daycares.
In the ruling, the Supreme Court has annulled the decision of the State Tax Administration Agency (AEAT), which denied a working mother the right to increase the maternity deduction by up to an additional thousand euros in personal income tax, for the expenses of custody of their children under three years of age in daycare.
The criterion of the Tax Administration to reject the deduction for daycare expenses is that only custody expenses paid to daycare centers that have, in addition to the operating permits inherent to this activity, an authorization as an educational center granted by the Competent educational administration.
This criterion, which has been applied by the AEAT on a general basis since the introduction of this deduction in the Personal Income Tax Law in 2018, is based on an interpretation of the Regulations of the Personal Income Tax Law that limits the obligation to issue tax information. for the deduction to centers that have authorization from the competent educational administration.
As daycare centers generally do not have this type of authorization to provide early childhood education, they cannot issue the corresponding tax information, and the Tax Administration does not allow expenses paid to daycare centers to be counted to obtain the tax deduction.
The Supreme Court considers that by applying this criterion, the Treasury imposes a requirement not established in the personal income tax law, which restricts the options of working mothers to be able to enjoy this deduction. Thus, it concludes that custody expenses will be deductible, within the legal limits, whether they are paid to daycare centers or early childhood education centers since the law “in no way conditions the requirements of the center in which working mothers decide to hire the custody services” in the sense intended by the AEAT.
The ruling warns that, in any case, “daycare centers must be duly authorized, as well as early childhood education centers” for the opening and operation of the activity of custody of minors, including assistance, care and feeding, but that they do not It is legally required that daycare centers in which taxpayers have contracted these custody services have authorization as children’s educational centers.
With this ruling, the Supreme Court unifies the criteria of the courts and tribunals and corrects the restrictive interpretation of the deduction applied by the Administration.
