Documentation you need to keep for education reimbursement for children under 18 years of age

2025-09-18 07:20:00, Sociale CNA

Documentation you need to keep for education reimbursement for children under 18

From contracts with educational institutions to payment documents for foreign language courses, the tax administration has clarified that these are the documentation that will be preserved and that justifies expenses for the education of children under 18 years of age.

From March 2026, parents with a gross annual income of less than 1.2 million lek will be granted 100 thousand lek per year for their children's education expenses. Regardless of the number of children, the amount of expenses that will be deducted from the total annual income will be 100 thousand lek.

Through the "Register of requests and responses 2025" section, the Tax Administration has clarified that expenses will be recognized through the completion of the DIVA annual income declaration, and that for income earned in 2025, the declaration is made in March 2026. This category must also have documented expenses through contracts with educational institutions or documents for payments for foreign language courses.

"In Law No. 29/2023 "On Income Tax", as amended, Article 22 "Deductions from the Tax Base", point 2 stipulates that a personal income tax taxpayer with annual taxable income from employment and/or annual taxable income from business of less than 1,200,000 lek may deduct, in addition to the individual amounts under point 1 of this article, current expenses for the education of children in his/her care, in the maximum amount of 100,000 lek. The request for deduction from the tax base in relation to education expenses is made by the family member with the highest annual taxable income, through the annual income declaration.

The document that will be kept and that justifies the declaration in the annual Individual Declaration is defined in point 23.1 of instruction no. 26, dated 08.09.2023 "On Income Tax", as amended, and is contracts with educational institutions and payment documents for children or documents for payments for foreign language courses, etc.

"As above, the deductions in this category will be applied to taxable income for 2025 (the declaration of which is made by March 31 of the following year)," Taxes explained.

Contracts or other documents for recognizing expenses will not be uploaded electronically at the time of completing the DIVA, but they need to be preserved in case of tax audit.

But be careful, recognizing expenses for the education of children under 18 years of age will bring compensation through tax recalculation. Those with gross annual incomes below 1.2 million lek will have an expense of 100 thousand lek deducted. After deducting expenses, the taxable base, i.e. the total gross annual income declared in DIVA, will be lower, which automatically means that the tax will also be lower.

Meanwhile, the income tax for 2025 has been paid. The refund or compensation that parents will receive will be the difference created by the recalculation of the tax. This difference or surplus will be requested within 3 months of the tax for compensation, after sending the request.

The DIVA for 2025 income will be completed on March 31, 2026, while the Ministry of Finance is also expected to approve an instruction for determining the procedures./ Monitor