December 3, 2023
The maintenance calculation is based on the reciprocal income of the dependent and the maintenance debtor. Income includes not only inflows of money in the broadest sense, but also saved expenses/monetary benefits, such as a company car provided by the employer or living in your own home (insofar as living in your own home is cheaper than in a comparable apartment for rent). If the dependent or the person liable for maintenance does not work or does not work to an extent that would be required of him, the income also includes income that could be earned in the required amount of employment (so-called fictitious income).
The so-called net maintenance law is calculated from the respective income by deducting the charges relevant to maintenance law. Such maintenance charges include:
The costs of current living expenses, such as ancillary costs, telephone costs, household allowance, etc. These living expenses are included in the so-called deductible, which must always be available to the person liable for maintenance. If the deductible is not maintained when paying the maintenance, which occurs in particular when there are several coinciding maintenance obligations towards the other parent and children, the maintenance must be reduced.
Expressed mathematically, this results in the following maintenance calculation:
emoluments
./. loads
= net maintenance law
In the case of child support, the respective maintenance claim results from classification of the net maintenance law in the Düsseldorf table.
In the case of a spouse's claim for maintenance, it must first be examined whether there is even a claim for maintenance, e.g. due to childcare. If this is the case, the spouse's maintenance claim is calculated as follows:
First, the child support paid must be deducted from the income of the person liable for maintenance. The income of the maintenance debtor and the dependent calculated in this way is then used in the following calculation formula, in which a maintenance claim is assumed by the woman:
Maintenance claim = (9/10 of the maintenance net man + 9/10 of the maintenance net woman): 2 — 9/10 net maintenance law woman
Especially in the case of several maintenance obligations, the result obtained from the above calculations must still be checked to see whether the calculated maintenance claims do not exceed the performance of the maintenance debtor. In fact, even after payment of the maintenance, the person liable for maintenance must always have enough left that his own livelihood is not endangered. This maintenance principle is based on the fact that anyone who does not have enough to live on will no longer be able to earn income that can be used for maintenance in the future.
The individual steps of a maintenance mandate can be divided into the following 5 stages:
In order to obtain precise information about each other's income, both the dependent and the person liable for maintenance are entitled to information about all of the other person's income. In addition, there is a right to be able to verify the accuracy of the information using suitable documents (payslips, tax return, company car certificate, income statement, balance sheets, etc.).
In order to prevent mistrust and deception, the accuracy of the information in the information must be proven by appropriate supporting documents.
The following documents, among others, can be considered as evidence of accuracy:
Income of employees/workers/officials:
Income of self-employed persons:
Since your lawyer doesn't always know everything about your life, we ask you to provide us with too many documents rather than too few if you have any questions. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions about this!
In addition to income, the maintenance claim also determines which maintenance charges are borne by the maintenance debtor.
Such charges that can be taken into account under maintenance law include:
Charges:
According to German law, anyone who is unable to support himself when payment of (full) maintenance does not owe any maintenance.
Depending on the maintenance claim, the person liable for maintenance is granted different allowances for his lifestyle.
The main allowances presented in somewhat abbreviated form (as of 2018) are:
The current approvals can be found in the Düsseldorf table. You can find them here.
The allowances, which are called maintenance deductibles, include rental costs (warm rent) of 430 EUR. Especially in Munich, this 430 EUR is almost never enough to find suitable living space. Insofar as it can be conclusively shown that a cheaper adequate apartment is not available on the market, the deductible must be increased accordingly up to the cost of an adequate apartment in Munich.
After the information has been provided, it is up to the dependent person to calculate the amount of the claimed maintenance. This last decisive step in particular is difficult to achieve without knowledge of maintenance details, which in detail would go beyond an overview. The law therefore also requires that both the dependent and the maintenance debtor both sign up for a Family Law Attorney be represented insofar as questions of maintenance law have to be resolved in court.
