(2023)
Is there an entitlement to child benefit during voluntary military service?
If children perform voluntary military service, parents are not entitled to child benefit or tax allowances during this period. Voluntary military service is therefore treated differently from the Federal Voluntary Service and the voluntary social or ecological year, during which parents receive child benefits.
The legislator assumed that parents do not incur any expenses for the child's maintenance during voluntary military service, unlike other voluntary services (see Federal Fiscal Court ruling of 3.7.2014, III R 53/13). However, one might think that, as with the former compulsory military and civilian service, the service period should be added to the child's 25th year if they are still in vocational training. Or to the 21st year if the child is unemployed.
Currently, the Münster Finance Court has ruled that for children who perform voluntary military service from 1.7.2011, an extension period beyond the age of 25 or 21 is no longer granted. The law (§ 52 para. 40 sentence 10 EStG) explicitly states that the extension period with child benefit entitlement only applies to children who started their service before 1.7.2011, and only until 2018 at the latest (Münster Finance Court of 27.10.2014, 5 K 2339/14 Kg).
