The tax implications of maintenance payments between former spouses (including former registered partners) are clearly set out in law. The partner paying maintenance may deduct it from their income tax. For the partner receiving maintenance, the amount is subject to income tax. As the maintenance obligation arises under family law, it does not constitute a gift subject to gift tax.
Maintenance payments agreed upon following the termination of a long-term cohabitation are treated in the same way, in so far as they are based on an urgent moral obligation to provide for the ex-partner’s livelihood / a natural obligation. Whether this is the case must be assessed on the basis of prevailing social attitudes at the time the maintenance was awarded. In a recent letter, State Secretary for Finance Wiebes has, for practical reasons, approved the approach whereby the tax-acceptable level of maintenance payments, for both income tax and gift tax purposes, is aligned with the so-called Training standards. These are the standards applied by the courts when determining maintenance obligations. Insofar as the maintenance payment agreed between former cohabitants does not exceed the Trema standards, that payment is deemed to fulfil a natural obligation.