Tax Relief on Maintenance Payments

jimbobjoe71

Hi. Not sure if anyone can help me out. I've been doing a little research on the net and keep seeing that maintenance payments for kids are tax deductible when enforced by the courts.
I split with my partner and the mother of my two children over a year ago. Basically we were incompatible and she missed having a support network like she would back home.
She's now living in Slovakia with our two children and I am paying €1250 a month maintenance and she claims Irish child benefit on top of this. This was just what was agreed between us and seems fair to me as she has the two children (under 6) 24/7.
I get over to see kids when I can for a weekend, once a month but sometimes once every two months. Cost of travel and accomodation can be about €200-300 on top of maintenance payment.
My question is. How would I get a court enforced order when she is over there? Would she have to claim from abroad? If it was tax deductible it would help as am trying to pay off the mortgage I took out to buy her out of our house. But then would she have to pay tax in Slovakia on what I send?
While I would save on tax, if in theory this could be done, would I be better off leaving it as I'd lose out on solicitor's fees because this sounds messy af. I am thinking long term, that if I'm paying until child is 23 and finished college that I've 19 years and it might work out a bit better in the end but my head is wrecked trying to make head nor tail of it all.
Thanks. Apologies for the essay.

un5byh7sqpd2x0

Maintenance paid to a former partner is tax deductible, if such maintenance is legally enforceable - and a tax liability lies with the former the partner - maintenance paid to a child is not.

https://www.revenue.ie/en/personal-tax-credits-reliefs-and-exemptions/marital-and-civil-status/maintenance-payments-relief/legally-enforceable-maintenance-payments.aspx

XsApollo

You are paying 1250 a month on maintenance? And she is claiming child benefit also so she has about 1500 a month.
She wouldn’t and doesn’t need to work.
That’s a serious wage in Slovakia, but I presume you know this.
Also rental income for properties adds to that too.
Drop the maintenance payments down , if you need extra cash to pay of the mortgage.

I know what I said is not what you asked, but I dunno how you would get it legally enforced if she isn’t living here.

jimbobjoe71

XsApollo wrote: »

You are paying 1250 a month on maintenance? And she is claiming child benefit also so she has about 1500 a month.
She wouldn’t and doesn’t need to work.
That’s a serious wage in Slovakia, but I presume you know this.
Also rental income for properties adds to that too.
Drop the maintenance payments down , if you need extra cash to pay of the mortgage.

I know what I said is not what you asked, but I dunno how you would get it legally enforced if she isn’t living here.

Thanks, I know it's a lot to some but I work in IT so less than a quarter of take home pay. Our youngest is nearly 4 so it is a full time job looking after him, I've no quibbles paying it. I can afford my mortgage payments I just got mixed up with what maintenance payments are tax deductible. It would have been nice to save a bit if I could, but it seems I can't. I might look at reducing payments a bit at a later date when the kids are old enough to comunicate with me alone but for now I'd rather not rock the boat as I might be cut out completely. Cheers for your replies.