Costs – heterologous artificial insemination – Tax consultant – Hagen – Holzwickede – Kamen – Lünen

Expenses incurred in connection with artificial insemination due to the wife’s inability to conceive can – insofar as they are not reimbursed by a health insurance fund or insurance – be taken into account as medical expenses within the scope of extraordinary burdens (§ 33 EStG). According to recent case law of the Federal Fiscal Court, this also applies if the husband is incapable of procreation and the wife is inseminated with the sperm of a third party (so-called heterologous artificial insemination).

In a recent decision, the Federal Fiscal Court recognized the tax consideration of heterologous fertilization even in the case of an (infertile) woman living in a same-sex partnership with another woman. The court justified this by stating that the sterility of a woman in a stable partnership – irrespective of whether homo loge or heterologous fertilization takes place and regardless of marital status – is due to an illness (childlessness) and corresponding treatment expenses are therefore deductible as extraordinary expenses.

The objection that heterologous insemination in women living in a same-sex partnership violates guidelines of the medical professional code of conduct was rejected by the court, since a corresponding explicit prohibition no longer exists.

(Further comments & information on this can be found in our information letter 03/2018 under item 2.)