German Justice Minister calls for tax breaks for separated parents

German Justice Minister Katarina Barley has called for changes in Germany’s laws to reflect their needs of separated or divorced parents and alleviate their financial burden.

In a interview with German newspaper, the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, Barley said that parents in such situations need more financial support.

The minister said that one way to help would be to relieve the tax burden on separated and divorced parents.
According to Barley, there are some 200,000 children who are impacted by divorce every year.

When two parents separate or get divorced in Germany, most of the time they are moved into different tax brackets with only one parent receiving better tax benefits.

The laws governing child support, which stem from the 1950s, were particularly designed to support single mothers or fathers who are the primary caregivers for their children.

In the event of a separation, the child is typically registered to one parent. The other parent is then required to pay child support, without taking into account custody agreements or how much time the child spends with them.

For couples who continue to co-parent more equally after the split, the system is particularly problematic.

On the same matter, on Sunday, Family Minister Franziska Giffey was quoted by Welt am Sonntag urging for better protections for fathers in divorced and separated families.

She hopes to change child support laws to reflect the fact that there are more diverse parenting arrangements today than there were when the laws were written.

“More and more fathers are taking on more responsibility, opting for parental leave and want partnership. That doesn’t necessarily end with a divorce,” Giffey newspaper.
Via DW