Dependent children over 30 excluded from the 730 tax return: around 300,000 people affected
The tax deduction is now available only to young people aged between 21 and 29
Key points
Whilst the age at which one is considered ‘young’ is shifting further and further into adulthood in our society, the tax authorities have set a limit: this year’s tax returns will no longer include the tax credit for parents of dependent children who turn 30 in 2025.
Under the changes introduced by the 2025 Budget Law, the tax deduction remains available only to parents of children aged between 21 and 29. Below this age range is the universal child allowance. From the age of 30 onwards, however, the bonus is withdrawn, unless the child has a disability certified in accordance with Law 104/92, Article 3: in this case, the deduction is maintained.
The figures
According to Istat data, 28.7% of young people aged between 30 and 34 still live with their parents. In absolute terms, this stalemate affects around 966,000 young people: some are already in employment (638,000), some are looking for work (227,000) and some are still studying (68,000). This is the main group targeted by the 2025 Budget (Law 207/2024, Article 1, paragraph 11), although there are obviously young people who are not financially independent even among those over 34 (a group not covered by Istat).
From 1 March 2022, with the introduction of the universal child allowance, the tax credit had already been limited to dependent children aged 21 and over. The new maximum age limit – according to the technical report accompanying the budget – will, once fully implemented, result in savings for the public purse of €319.5 million per year. To put this into perspective, in the 2024 tax year – the last before the cut – the total value of the tax relief for family members, including spouses and other dependent relatives, was 3.76 billion.
The effects
The impact on individual households can be gauged by analysing the Treasury’s statistics. In the tax returns filed last year, the deduction for dependent family members reduced taxpayers’ income tax by an average of €672. It should be noted that the maximum amount of €950 decreases as income rises, falling to zero at €95,000 (a threshold increased by €15,000 for each child beyond the first). The allowance is multiplied by the number of children and is either split equally between the parents or allocated to the parent with the higher income. The average income of taxpayers with dependants in 2024 was €27,844. Only three in ten fell within the €29,000 to €50,000 bracket, and only 7% earned more than €50,000.
