Tax abatement for children over 26 years

Up to now, colleagues with children over 26 years old who were still students could benefit from the tax allowance (tax abatement) for dependent children, even if they no longer received the dependent child allowance. That practice is based on a very old conclusion by the Heads of the administrations.

In June, the PMO decided to stop granting this tax allowance as from June 2021. Union Syndicale’s legal experts consider that this decision is probably unlawful. It disregards the hierarchy of norms and has transposed a judgment of the General Court concerning a case at the European Central Bank (whose staff are governed by other provisions) to staff subject to our Staff Regulations.

Union Syndicale Brussels invites its member organisations at EU level to provide assistance to members affected by this decision.

• firstly by asking them to make themselves known,
• and then by grouping the cases, with a view to lodging a complaint, followed potentially by joint appeals, with assistance from the USB lawyer, Me de Montigny.

Two groups that can be covered:

• Those who benefited from this tax allowance previously. In this case, a complaint should be lodged at latest 3 months after the first pay slip not including the tax allowance. In some institutions that deadline will already be on 14 September.
• Those whose child has just turned 26 and is still a student. The colleagues concerned should submit a request for the tax allowance to the PMO and then submit a complaint within three months of rejection of that request.