DIVA reimbursement for educational expenses, how to obtain the discount

Employed individuals and natural persons, by deducting expenses for the education of children under 18 years of age through the annual income declaration (DIVA), will have the opportunity to benefit not only from tax reductions, but also to request a refund from taxes in cases of credit excess.

Legal auditor Julian Saraçi says that the right to reimbursement benefits occurs in cases where employees and businesses result in a credit surplus.

"In cases where after submitting the declaration on March 31, 2026 (DIVA for employees or business declaration for individuals) a credit surplus results from these deductions, a refund may be requested.

According to Article 75 of Law No. 9920, if the taxpayer has paid more tax, the tax administration initially uses the excess amount to settle other unpaid obligations.

"With the taxpayer's written approval, the remaining amount is either refunded within 30 calendar days or carried over to cover future liabilities," explains statutory auditor Julian Saraçi.

As for the annual deductions for education expenses in practice, this means that a family with two children under the age of 18 can benefit from up to 96,000 lek deductions for children's educational expenses and up to 100,000 lek for education, if they meet the conditions for annual income to be below 1.2 million lek, significantly reducing the total tax they must pay.

These changes come as part of Normative Act No. 7, dated 14.12.2023 of the new law "On Income Tax", which provides fiscal support for families through two main benefits.

According to the new provisions that enter into force on January 1, 2025, the benefits for individuals will be 48,000 lek per year deduction from the tax base for each child under 18 years of age, without income limitation; 100,000 lek per year deduction for documented expenses for children's education, but only for individuals with annual income from employment of less than 1.2 million lek.

These deductions will not be applied every month to the salary, but only once a year, when the DIVA personal income tax return is completed.

Deductions will be made through the annual DIVA declaration, which is submitted for the 2025 tax year by March 31, 2026.

"In addition to standard deductions, a compensation of 48,000 lek is also provided for each dependent child up to 18 years old, as well as up to 100,000 lek for children's education expenses, provided that the annual taxable income does not exceed the limit of 1.2 million lek," says statutory auditor Julian Saraçi.

These deductions can only be claimed by the family member with the highest annual taxable income, through the annual income tax return (for individuals) or the personal income tax return from business (for natural persons). For this, supporting documents are required, such as family certificates, contracts with educational institutions and payment receipts./monitor.al