Tax Tips 2025: How to Claim Your Kids and Maximize Your Tax Benefits!

For parents, certain expenses related to children can lighten the tax load. Childcare costs, tuition fees, recreation center fees, alimony for adult children, single parent status… All these situations can qualify for a tax reduction or credit when filing your tax return. Moreover, having children also allows you to benefit from the family quotient, a mechanism that increases the number of shares in your tax household. The more dependents you have, the more this system reduces your taxes—a significant benefit for families, as is the tax attachment.

This year, the deadlines to declare your 2024 income online vary by your department: until May 22 for departments 1 to 19, until May 29 for departments 20 to 54, and until June 5 for departments 55 to 976 (including overseas territories). Taxpayers who declare their income on paper have until May 20, 2025, to submit their form. Here are all the rules you need to know to correctly declare your income as a parent, along with the 2025 tax calendar:

Until what age can an adult child be included in a parent’s tax household?

An adult child can be included in the tax household of their parents if they meet certain criteria. If they are under 21 years old as of January 1, 2024, they can be included without conditions. Between the ages of 21 and 25, they can be included if they are still in school at that time. This inclusion allows parents to benefit from an increase in the number of shares for calculating the family quotient, which can reduce taxes. However, any income earned by the child must be added to the household’s total income.

If the child is married, in a civil union, or has children, the inclusion does not grant an additional share, but rather a deduction from the taxable income of the parents. For the taxation of 2024 income, this deduction amounts to 6,794 euros per attached person (the child, their partner, and their children).