Too many parents are unaware: they can get part of their school lunch costs reimbursed by taxes.

This tax refund is unknown to most parents.

It's a subtle trick that few parents are aware of. Yet, it allows you to drastically reduce your tax bill. While the tax authorities don't advertise it, the technique is indeed legal. Some, like Laurent (not his real name), discovered it a few days ago thanks to a document from the town hall: it's possible to deduct a portion of the school lunch expenses spent on your children from your income.

A resident of Metz, the thirty-year-old retrieved a summary of the expenses incurred for his daughter in 2024 from his personal space on the municipal website. These are the amounts he must include in his tax return. A "pleasant surprise" for this father, even if "frankly, you have to know! It's not very well explained." However, looking into it can lead to significant savings.

His 5-year-old daughter attends middle school. Every lunchtime, she eats lunch in the canteen. The daily cost for the parents: €6.42, or €1,027.20 over the year. A significant expense. However, Laurent can deduct a portion of this total from his taxes—45.76%, to be precise. A precise rate that corresponds… to the cost of supervising the child during this extracurricular time (the rest being related to preparing the meal).

Given his daughter's age, school lunchtime supervision is considered childcare expenses for children under 6. The money spent on this item can therefore be entered in box 6GA, the same box where other extracurricular or leisure center expenses are also entered. Laurent will therefore be able to add €470 in expenses to his tax return, which will then be subtracted from his taxable income.

"Last year, the town hall sent me a paper version. This year, nothing. I had to log into the registration website. I retrieved this summary from the documents section," warns Laurent. And not all town halls provide it. It's therefore up to the taxpayer to do the calculation themselves, with the risk of making a mistake.

However, as the line indicates, this expense is only tax-deductible up to the child's 6th birthday. After that age, it is no longer possible to apply it. A little trick for a few years that is always good for your finances, but too little known.