Your fer­ti­lity tre­at­ment: fi­nan­cial sup­port  

As a rule, an­yone who re­ceives an in­come in Ger­many must pay taxes on it. The in­come tax cal­cu­lated by the tax of­fice can then pos­sibly be re­duced due to ex­tra­or­di­nary bur­dens.

What are “ex­tra­or­di­nary bur­dens” and: Does my wish to have a child count as ex­tra­or­di­nary bur­dens?

Ex­tra­or­di­nary bur­dens are, ac­cor­ding to §§ 33 ff. EStG: “ex­tra­or­di­nary bur­dens are fi­nan­cial hard­ships that a normal tax­payer with com­pa­rable in­come, as­sets and marital status would not ne­ces­s­a­rily have to face.” These are bur­dens that cannot be avo­ided for legal or fac­tual re­asons, be­cause they cannot ne­ces­s­a­rily be “avo­ided”. More pre­cisely, these are cir­cum­s­tances that some people suffer, but others don’t.

Ex­tra­or­di­nary bur­dens also in­clude spe­cial me­dical ex­penses if they are not in­curred by the average tax­payer. The ex­amples can be very dif­fe­rent and can also be ap­plied to fer­ti­lity tre­at­ment.

In the ap­pli­ca­tion form, these tre­at­ments can be listed as tax-re­du­cing. Ho­wever, the tax of­fice does not re­co­gnize the en­tire 100% of the claimed costs, be­cause the tax­payer is ex­pected to bear part of the costs himself — in some cases 1 to 7% of the total costs. For you, this means that even if your case is re­co­gnized, a small part will not be taken over.

Ac­cor­ding to the ju­ris­dic­tion of the Fe­deral Fiscal Court, the costs of fer­ti­lity tre­at­ment are ge­ne­rally tax de­duc­tible. Ho­wever, the basic pre­re­qui­site is that the costs re­late to a “me­di­cally ne­ces­sary tre­at­ment” that is per­mitted in Ger­many. Egg do­na­tion or sur­rogacy for ex­ample, are not among the per­mitted tre­at­ments. Other­wise, the court is not con­cerned with eva­lua­ting so­cial points of view and life mo­dels, but with fi­nan­cial bur­dens ac­tually in­curred due to me­dical costs (in the sense of tax law).

It the­r­e­fore does not matter whe­ther you live in a same-sex part­ner­ship or are single, but ra­ther the ex­tra­or­di­nary burden you ex­pe­ri­ence (due to an unful­filled child wish).

Com­pa­rison of tax law vs. he­alth insu­rance law

The rigid re­qui­re­ments in the sta­tu­tory he­alth insu­rance law § 27a SGBV are not ob­served in the case of tax law and are re­laxed by the Fe­deral Fiscal Court. In con­trast to the re­gu­la­tion of he­alth insu­rance funds, un­mar­ried cou­ples can now also de­duct their costs for as­sisted re­pro­duc­tion from taxes as an ex­tra­or­di­nary burden. In ad­di­tion, taxes can also be de­ducted for tre­at­ments with a sperm do­na­tion. Ho­wever, this only ap­plies to ho­mo­logous in­se­mi­na­tion (when the part­ner’s sperm is used). Since 2017, a woman can also have tre­at­ment costs for IVF or ICSI de­ducted from her taxes as fer­ti­lity tre­at­ment if she lives in a same-sex part­ner­ship.

The re­ason for this is ul­ti­m­ately that it is not the chosen life­style that should be de­cisive, but the ques­tion of the rest­ric­tion that so­meone ex­pe­ri­ences.

Since the 2004 he­alth re­form, cou­ples with sta­tu­tory he­alth insu­rance have to pay 50% of the costs of in­fer­ti­lity tre­at­ment them­selves. Be­cause of this, there is now the pos­si­bi­lity of re­cei­ving fi­nan­cial sup­port from the cof­fers of the fa­mily mi­nis­tries of the fe­deral go­vern­ment and se­veral states. The fe­deral go­vern­ment has is­sued a fe­deral gui­de­line for this pur­pose.

Aim of the fi­nan­cial sup­port for as­sisted re­pro­duc­tion

In prin­ciple, the aim is to re­duce the cou­ples’ own con­tri­bu­tion from 50% to up to 25% by means of fun­ding from the fe­deral state and the fe­deral go­vern­ment. Ho­wever, the gran­ting of fi­nan­cial sup­port by the fe­deral go­vern­ment de­pends on whe­ther the fe­deral state in which the couple has their main re­si­dence has also en­acted a legal basis for fi­nan­cial sup­port for the cou­ples.

Fe­deral states that pro­vide fi­nan­cial sup­port for as­sisted re­pro­duc­tion:

• Meck­len­burg-Wes­tern Po­me­rania
• Bran­den­burg
• Berlin
• Thu­ringia
• Sa­xony
• Sa­xony-An­halt
• Lower Sa­xony
• Hesse
• North Rhine-West­phalia

Pre­re­qui­sites for fi­nan­cial sup­port by the fe­deral states

Since the fe­deral states are le­gally in­de­pen­dent, they have in part created dif­fe­rent re­qui­re­ments for fi­nan­cial sup­port and the amount of be­ne­fits. These cannot all be listed here, which is why re­fe­rence is made to this Fun­ding Check page.

Af­fected cou­ples can only re­ceive fi­nan­cial sup­port if they choose a fer­ti­lity clinic in the fe­deral state that pro­vides fi­nan­cial sup­port and the tre­at­ment is IVF or ICSI. Only the first four tre­at­ments are re­le­vant. The couple must be mar­ried to each other or live in a non-marital part­ner­ship. Since only the cou­ple’s own eggs and sperm must be used, tre­at­ments with a sperm do­na­tion are not taken into ac­count. Ac­cor­dingly, no same-sex couple will re­ceive fi­nan­cial sup­port. The age of the couple is de­cisive. Both must be older than 25, with the woman not older than 40 and the man not older than 50.

If you are also in­te­rested in the topic of cost co­verage for as­sisted re­pro­duc­tion by the he­alth insu­rance fund, you can follow the link.

At Fer­tilly, we have made it our mis­sion to ac­com­pany cou­ples (ho­mo­se­xual and he­te­ro­se­xual) and sin­gles on the way to ful­fil­ling their child wish. In doing so, it is im­portant to us to create trans­pa­rency in the area of fer­ti­lity ser­vices, to pro­vide in­for­ma­tion and know­ledge on the to­pics of pregnancy and fer­ti­lity and to help you to find the most sui­table Fer­ti­lity Center. Th­rough co­ope­ra­tion with first-class Fer­ti­lity Cen­tres and cli­nics in Eu­rope, en­qui­ries about Fer­tilly are given pre­fe­ren­tial tre­at­ment. This means that our pa­ti­ents avoid the usually long wai­ting times and get ap­point­ments more quickly.

If you would like more in­for­ma­tion about Fer­ti­lity Cen­ters, suc­cess rates and prices, please contact us using this ques­ti­on­n­aire. We will ad­vise you free of charge and wi­t­hout any ob­li­ga­tion.