Düsseldorf table: maintenance

What regulates the Düsseldorf table?

If you are married, take care of your child together. Everyone does their part. If you separate, the child will stay in one parent’s household. As a caring parent, you fulfill your maintenance obligation by raising, caring for and caring for the child. As a non-caring parent however, make cash maintenance. This cash maintenance is measured according to the Düsseldorf table.

The most important thing

The Düsseldorf table lists the Child support payments.
It is used to a large extent by the courts in the maintenance calculation. It’s about the Amount of maintenance payments and the way in which they are calculated in individual cases.
To yours Understand the child’s maintenance obligation, you must calculate your adjusted net income based on your gross income.
Depending on, how old your child is, Your maintenance obligation arises, taking into account your deductible and the control amount.
The amounts of maintenance payments were last raised on January 1, 2020.

What is the Dusseldorf table?

The family courts calculate child support according to the Düsseldorf table. It contains specific amounts that a child needs to to make a living. The Düsseldorf table is adjusted at regular intervals and is currently the version from January 1, 2020. The next adjustment is scheduled for January 1, 2021. The table has no legal force and is just as a guideline to understand, which gives the family judge an orientation on how he should start child support. Since the table is coordinated between the higher regional courts with the participation of the maintenance commission of the German Family Court Day, it still has one largely binding effect and is taken into account accordingly by the district and regional courts. The payment amounts are based on the first income level Minimum child support requirements, which the legislator regularly reassesses according to the minimum maintenance regulation.

Separation and children

What needs to be considered if you want to separate and have children?

Düsseldorf table (as of January 1, 2019)

Net income of the Barunterhaltspflichtigen	Age levels in years				percentage	Need Control amount
0 – 5	6-11	12-17	from 18
1.	to 1,900	354	406	476	527	100	880 / 1,080
2.	1,901 – 2,300	372	427	500	554	105	1300
3.	2,301 – 2,700	390	447	524	580	110	1400
4.	2,701 – 3,100	408	467	548	607	115	1500
5.	3,101-3,500	425	488	572	633	120	1600
6.	3,501 – 3,900	454	520	610	675	128	1700
7.	3,901 – 4,300	482	553	648	717	136	1800
8th.	4,301 – 4,700	510	585	686	759	144	1900
9.	4,701 – 5,100	539	618	724	802	152	2000
10.	5,101 – 5,500	567	650	762	844	160	2100

How do I understand the Düsseldorf table?

The Düsseldorf table is more than just a number. You need the Interpretation in individual cases. It is by no means the case that, knowing your net income and the age of your child, you can immediately see the amount of maintenance that is relevant for you. The amounts shown in the table depend on a number of factors.

Step 1: Determine your net income

Child support is calculated according to your so-called adjusted net income. The starting point for this is your average gross income over the past three months. If you are self-employed or freelance, calculate your average income according to your income surplus or balance sheet. You can deduct social security contributions, taxes, work-related expenses and eligible liabilities from gross income. Depending on what results in adjusted net income, you will be classified in one of the income levels 1 to 10.

Step 2: How old is the child?

The Düsseldorf table classifies children in four age groups (0-5 years, 6-11 years, 12-17 years and over 18 years). Depending on your adjusted net income, place your child in one of the four age groups on. Then you can find a certain amount of maintenance payments in the table. But even this amount alone is not decisive.

Step 3: Correct the classification

You need to know that the table shows the monthly maintenance needs for two dependents. As a rule, two children or one child and the other parent can be considered dependent. If you are only obliged to maintain one child, you will usually be placed in a higher income group and pay more maintenance accordingly. If you pay maintenance for more than two people, you will be in one lower income group stepped. The amount that the individual dependent receives then is not necessarily the same as the payment amount that the table shows according to your income. In this respect, you still have to Need Control amount consider.

Step 4: Take child benefit into account

The child benefit is to be counted towards the maintenance payment. The Düsseldorf table does not yet take child benefit into account. From July 1, 2019, child benefit is EUR 204 for the 1st and 2nd child, and EUR 210 for the 3rd child and for each additional child 235 EUR. So your spouse living separately from you will receive child benefit, allowed to You deduct half of this against your maintenance obligation and pay less child support accordingly.

Step 5: Take the training allowance into account

If your child is in training for a job and the child lives in the household of one of the parents, he must have his / her training allowance offset against child support as his own earnings. After all, it can take care of itself. Before that, however, additional training-related requirements of EUR 100 per month must be deducted.

Step 6: Check your deductible

If you are subject to maintenance, you should not become a welfare case. For your own livelihood, you are available to children who are minors and to adults who are unmarried and are living in the household of a parent and are in general schooling until the age of 21 a monthly deductible too.

If you are gainfully employed, your deductible is EUR 1,160. If you are not gainfully employed, the deductible is EUR 960. If your adjusted net income is below these amounts, you may be morally, but not legally obliged to maintain (deficiency case). The excess amounts include costs for your rent or the loan service for your self-financed property including ancillary costs and heating. The deductibles can also be increased in special cases if your housing costs are higher and reasonable. If your child is of legal age, the appropriate personal requirement, including the warm rent, is usually EUR 1,400 per month.

Step 7: Check your demand control amount

Finally there is the demand control amount. It is only identical in income level 1 with your deductible of EUR 960 / EUR 1,160. However, it rises in income level 2. The purpose of the demand control amount is that your income should be distributed evenly between several dependent persons. If you have less than the requirement control amount, taking into account all of your maintenance obligations, child maintenance in the next lower group must be used.

Step 8: Are you a defect??

If you earn little, it may be that your income is not sufficient to pay the full child support considering your deductible. They are then a so-called relative defect case. If your income is still below your deductible, you are an absolute shortfall. In the event of a relative shortage, your disposable income is up several dependents to distribute proportionately. It is after

§ 1609 BGB to take into account a certain ranking. The primary priority is to serve your minor child. Only then will maintenance be considered for your spouse, who lives separately from you.

Expert tip: If you are unable to provide child support for your child, the other parent, who represents the child, can apply to the youth welfare office for an advance payment. The maintenance advance is now paid without the child’s age limit and without a time limit until the child reaches the age of majority. However, this does not relieve you of your maintenance obligation. The youth welfare office will of course take you into recourse and, if necessary, also compulsorily collect the child support you have paid.

Conclusion

Maintenance calculations are complex. For the first orientation you can use our maintenance calculator. However, it is better if you seek legal advice *. At the latest when you have to enforce the maintenance claim in court, you should anyway reliant on legal assistance his. Ideally, the parent who is liable for maintenance expressly recognizes his or her child’s maintenance obligation in a youth welfare certificate at the local youth welfare office, thereby avoiding a time-consuming process for everyone involved uncomfortable and often completely senseless argument.

Written by: Heinrich von Südhoff