Overview

• About a dozen feminist associations, including Fondation des femmes and Osez le féminisme, have launched a petition urging lawmakers to defiscalize child support ahead of France’s income tax filing deadline.
• Under current rules, child support payments are treated as taxable income for custodial parents and subtracted from the payer’s income, affecting beneficiaries’ tax liabilities and eligibility for social benefits like RSA and housing aid.
• Women make up over 90% of the roughly 900,000 parents receiving child support annually, leading advocates to argue that the tax system disproportionately burdens single mothers.
• An October 2024 socialist amendment in the National Assembly to exempt child support from taxation was approved but ultimately excluded from the final 2025 budget under the Bayrou government.
• Campaigners contend that defiscalizing child support would simplify tax declarations, reduce reporting errors and recognize that alimony payments are intended for children rather than custodial parents.