Child maintenance: reading the Düsseldorf table properly

What the table is and what it is not

The Düsseldorf table is not a statute. It is a guideline issued by the Düsseldorf higher regional court in agreement with the other higher regional courts and applied uniformly across the country. What is bindingly prescribed is only the statutory minimum maintenance (§ 1612a BGB); the table builds on that and grades upwards.

For proceedings in Frankfurt the maintenance guidelines of the Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt am Main come on top. They settle individual points differently from other higher regional courts, one reason why a specimen calculation found on the internet does not always work out here.

Above all, though: the table names the need, not the amount payable. Anyone who reads off the figure and transfers it almost always pays too much or too little.

Step 1: adjust the income

The income bracket follows not the net figure on the payslip but the adjusted net income of the person liable for maintenance. The adjustment goes in both directions.

What is deducted includes work-related expenses, liabilities that can be taken into account and additional pension provision within certain limits. What is added is whatever the income does not show but which carries the standard of living: tax refunds, benefits in kind such as a company car available for private use, rental income and the housing advantage of a property you live in yourself.

This step is the one that gets fought over in practice. The table is fixed, the adjusted income is not. The basis for it is the mutual duty of disclosure (§ 1605 BGB); anyone calculating without checked figures is calculating past the point.

Step 2: read off the need

The income bracket follows from the adjusted income, and the age band from the child’s age: up to 5 years, 6 to 11, 12 to 17 and from 18. Where the two meet stands the need. Two corrections belong with it:

• The number of persons entitled. The table assumes two persons entitled to maintenance. Where there are more, the bracket is stepped down; where there are fewer, it can be stepped up.
• The needs control amount. It ensures a balanced relationship between what stays with the payer and what those entitled receive. Where it is undercut, the bracket is stepped down.

Step 3: set off child benefit

Child benefit is deducted from the need (§ 1612b BGB). The statute attaches not to age but to care: half of it is set off where one parent fulfils their maintenance obligation through caring for the child; in all other cases the full amount.

In practice that leads to the familiar rule of thumb: for a minor child in the residence model, half the child benefit is deducted; for an adult child whom nobody cares for in that sense any more, the full amount. The thinking behind it is simple: economically, child benefit belongs to both parents, even where it is paid out to only one.

What remains after that deduction is the amount payable: the amount that is actually transferred.

Step 4: check the protected minimum and the order of precedence

The payer keeps a protected minimum for their own needs in every case. Towards minor children and privileged adult children it is set lower than towards all other persons entitled; the demands on parents of minor children are deliberately strict here (§ 1603 (2) BGB).

Where the income is not enough for all claims, there is a case of shortfall. The statutory order of precedence in § 1609 BGB then applies: minor children and the privileged adults treated as equal to them first, then the spouses who care for children or were married for many years, then all the rest. The remaining amount is distributed pro rata among those of equal rank.

Adult children: the roles change

With adulthood the basis changes. Until then the caring parent fulfils their share through daily care and the other pays maintenance in money. From 18 both parents are liable in money, pro rata according to their incomes; child benefit is set off in full, and the claim belongs to the child itself, no longer to the caring parent.

An exception is formed by privileged adult children: unmarried, up to the age of 21, living in the household of their parents or of one parent and in general school education (§ 1603 (2) BGB). They are treated as equal to minor children, in rank as well as in the stricter protected minimum.

What the table does not cover

Alongside ongoing maintenance stand two separate categories. Additional need is a permanently increased, regular need, for instance the cost of a nursery or of tutoring. Special need is a one-off, unforeseeable item (§ 1613 (2) BGB). Neither is contained in the table figure, and both are asserted separately, as a rule pro rata according to the incomes of both parents.

The shared care model likewise bursts the logic of the table: where both parents care roughly in half, maintenance in money can no longer be assigned to one parent alone. On that, shared care in Frankfurt.

What comes next

Child maintenance is one of three claims that run alongside each other after a separation; the overall picture is set out under separation & maintenance. For maintenance between the spouses, rules of their own apply; on that, separation maintenance: who gets how much and post-marital maintenance.

And because every calculation rests on figures that have to be disclosed: how far the duty of disclosure reaches is shown by disclosure about your spouse’s assets.

Legal notice: This article is provided for general information and does not replace legal advice in an individual case. Any laws, deadlines and amounts mentioned reflect the state of affairs at the time of publication and may change. A binding assessment requires a personal consultation.