The Spanish maternity deduction: a ceiling that vanished

The short answer

The Spanish maternity deduction is worth up to 1,200 € a year for each child under three, at 100 € for every qualifying month¹. What almost nobody mentions is that until 2022 the amount was capped by what the mother had contributed that year, and that this ceiling no longer exists.

The ceiling that vanished in 2023

Until the 2022 tax year, article 81.3 said the deduction «shall be limited for each child to the total Social Security and mutual fund contributions accrued in each tax period». The consequence was harsh and little known: a mother working part time, or who had only worked a few months, collected far less than the 1,200 € however fully she met the requirements. The amount depended not on her children but on her payslip.

Article 64 of Law 31/2022 rewrote that paragraph entirely with effect from 1 January 2023, and the limit appears nowhere in the text in force¹. It was not lowered or qualified: it was deleted.

The tax agency puts a number on it in its own worked example⁵. A taxpayer whose annual contributions come to 475 € deducts 1,900 € for her two twins, and the note accompanying the calculation explains that «contributions have not been taken into account in determining the deductible amount because from 1 January 2023 this limitation disappears». Under the previous rule she would have collected 475 €. In that particular case the difference is 1,425 €.

The same article removed the twin ceiling on the nursery increase, which used to be capped by contributions and by spend at once, and today is capped by spend alone.

Three ways to qualify, and none of them requires working

The previous wording spoke of women «carrying on an employed or self-employed activity for which they are registered». The version in force lists three situations and none of them uses the word work¹:

The third is the one that changes most real situations, because it gives the deduction to a mother who was not working when her child was born and finds a job afterwards. The tax agency sums up the reform like this: «removing the requirement that the woman carry on an employed or self-employed activity»⁵.

If the mother dies, or custody is awarded exclusively to the father or a guardian, that person is entitled to the outstanding deduction provided they meet the requirements¹.

The 150 € for the thirtieth day

Anyone reaching the entitlement through that third door adds a single payment. The second paragraph of article 81.3 says that «the deduction for the month in which the 30-day contribution period referred to in paragraph 1 above is completed shall be increased by 150 euros»¹.

That is why the ceiling per child is not the same for everybody, and the tax agency labels its cases with two different figures: 1,200 € in the general case and 1,350 € in this one⁵.

It is worth knowing because it is not paid in advance. The advance payment is a flat 100 € a month, so the 150 € only appears when the return is filed.

Which months count

The months of the year in which the requirements are met and the child is under three. Rule one of article 60.2 of the regulation says exactly how they are looked at: «the determination of children shall be made according to their situation on the last day of each month»².

Two consequences follow that are frequently misread. A child born on 31 January earns the whole of January, because on the last day of that month the child exists. And the month of the third birthday does not count: a child born on 2 September 2021 gives eight months of 2024, January to August, because on 30 September the child is three⁵.

In adoption, fostering or pre-adoptive guardianship the relevant date is the entry in the Civil Registry rather than the birth, and the deduction can be taken for the following three years regardless of the child's age¹.

The minimum living income supplement blocks it

Article 81.3 makes the countable months conditional on the «child support supplement provided for in Law 19/2021» not being drawn during them «by either of the parents in relation to that descendant», that supplement being the one attached to the minimum living income¹.

That «either» is worth reading slowly. The question is not whether you draw it, but whether neither you nor the other parent does. What is lost is those months rather than the whole year, so a supplement drawn from January to May leaves the remaining seven months intact.

The nursery extra and its two caps

The amount can be increased by up to 1,000 € more where childcare expenses have been paid for the child at authorised nurseries or infant education centres¹. That increase has two caps, and they are measured on different quantities:

The difference between those two rows is what produces the counterintuitive result: a part-paid month earns no month, and yet its amount does raise the spend cap². A month contracted in full counts even where part of it falls outside term time.

Two things come off the spend. One is the regional nursery grant, even where it is paid straight to the centre and the family never sees the money. The other is any amount either parent's employer paid as an exempt benefit in kind under letters b) or d) of article 42.3, which is the employer nursery voucher¹. In the opposite direction, article 60.1 requires counting «both the amount paid by the mother or the taxpayer entitled to that increase, and that paid by the other parent»², so an expense split in half counts in full.

Childcare expenses mean pre-registration and enrolment, attendance in general and extended hours, and meals¹.

A worked example with real numbers

Take the example the tax agency itself publishes⁵. A mother was not registered when her twins were born in January, was hired in April and completed the 30 days of contributions on 20 May. Her contributions for the whole year come to 475 €.

The older child was born on 2 September 2021, so he adds May to August: September no longer counts. And the nursery extra comes from six complete months, January to June, because the fifteen days of July earn no month.

The spend cap for that extra is built like this: 300 € of enrolment, plus 3,000 € for six months at 500, plus 250 € for July, less a 700 € regional grant and less 560 € paid by the other parent's employer, giving 2,290 €. Since 500 is less than 2,290, the months cap binds and the increase is 500 €.

Note that the 250 € for July enter that calculation even though they earn no month. That is exactly the asymmetry between the two caps.

Form 140, and why it has no date

Form 140 is the application for the advance payment: drawing the deduction at 100 € a month instead of waiting for the return. It has no filing deadline. Article 5.1 of Order HAC/177/2020 says the application «shall be made from the moment when, the requirements and conditions for entitlement being met, the taxpayer opts for the advance payment arrangement»³. No month, no window, no date.

What does make up for having been slow is in article 4.2: the agency pays «from the month corresponding to the date the application is filed and, where applicable, from the previous month», monthly and without proration³. And the application does not require any supporting document, because the agency verifies entitlement from the data it already holds.

There is a deadline for reporting changes: fifteen calendar days from when they occur³. But the list of what must be reported is shorter than it looks, and its carve-out is the most striking thing about the form.

The Order justifies it in one phrase: those last three are not reported «these being data the tax agency already holds»⁴. In other words, stopping work, which is the first thing many people assume they must report, is not a reportable change.

Drawing it monthly means squaring it afterwards

Both routes give the same final amount and differ in when you have the money. The problem is that they are worked out differently: the advance is flat, 100 € per child per month without proration, while the deduction is proportional to the months and can carry the 150 € for the thirtieth day.

When the two figures do not match, article 60.5.3 requires the difference to be settled in the return, and even reported by someone not obliged to file one². In exchange, paragraph 4 of the same article specifies that «no late-payment interest shall be payable for receiving, through the advance payment and for a cause not attributable to the taxpayer, amounts greater than the maternity deduction due»².

One last point about the advance: the nursery increase is never paid up front. Article 81.4 offers the advance only for «the amount of the deduction provided for in paragraph 1 above»¹, and the nursery extra is in paragraph 2.