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Corona forces home office: Who pays the additional costs - and what can I sell?

2020-03-31T13:49:18.217Z


Because the corona virus is raging worldwide, Germany is flexible. Many people work in the home office. But who actually pays the additional costs?


Because the corona virus is raging worldwide, Germany is flexible. Many people work in the home office. But who actually pays the additional costs?

  • The new coronavirus Sars-CoV-2 * also paralyzes the world of work in Germany
  • Many employees have to switch to their home office *
  • But who pays the additional costs through the home office and what can be deducted from the tax?

Home office is perhaps the word of the hour. Because the new Sars-CoV-2 * coronavirus is raging worldwide, people are encouraged to work from home - if possible. The infection and transmission of the virus should be avoided, as the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and the World Health Organization (WHO) emphasize on a daily basis. Germany is largely flexible and many a dining table should already have the dust edges of a laptop.

Your own four walls are converted into an office, and often your own PC or laptop is raised to a working device. But who actually pays all the extra costs? And what can be deducted from the tax ?

Home office because of Corona: Who pays the additional costs and what can I deduct from the tax?

Anyone who cares for the continued well-being of his employer with his own laptop will certainly be asking himself the question more frequently these days and weeks: Who actually pays me that? Can the laptop now be tax deducted? Could this even apply to the chair I'm sitting on and the table I'm working on?

Yes and no, clarifies the income tax relief association Vereinigte Lohnsteuerhilfe eV (VLH). According to current tax law, costs for the home office can only be deducted if the employee has his own home office.

Corona crisis forces home office: Costs difficult to deduct from tax

In the current situation, however, this should only be the case for very few. Most of the workers who are now in their home office because of the corona crisis have their work somewhere between the Playstation console and the pantry. The work device is often your own laptop or PC with login access to the corporate server.

After all, the current state in the times of Corona should only be a temporary solution. Until everything is back to normal. Until Corona is gone. So who is going to set up an entire room for it if it didn't already exist?

Home office costs for Corona: What the tax office does not recognize

One thing is clear: sitting with a laptop at the kitchen table in the home office is not recognized by the tax office. The study has to be used almost exclusively for the job, explains VLH. Accordingly, anyone who has a study will be able to deduct costs from tax. If the study is the focus of the professional activity, the costs can be deducted in full.

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Many people work in the home office during the corona crisis.

© picture alliance / Sebastian Gollnow / dpa

However, if the room is only used for certain professional purposes, a maximum of 1,250 euros per year can be deducted from the tax as advertising costs. This applies, for example, to teachers.

Additional costs in the home office thanks to corona virus: What the employer is obliged to do

The workers who are sitting in the home office due to the corona pandemic but do not have a separate study are left empty-handed. It is not without reason that the VLH recommends relaxing the regulations in view of the corona crisis in order to make the costs for a work corner deductible.

Vereinigte Lohnsteuerhilfe eV - VLH: Deducting Home Office Costs in the Corona Crisis? https://t.co/HZoZuJZKPR #NeustadtADW pic.twitter.com/aqdrrQomcc

- presseportal.de (@na_presseportal) March 30, 2020

But the story of the tax is only half the truth. With all the repurposing and the Corona messages, it is easy to fall back that the employer is actually contractually obliged to fully equip his employees' home office. Translated means: PC, laptop, screen, keyboard, mouse, desk, which is just as necessary.

Home office because of Corona causes additional costs: An expert recommends this

In theory, the employer must even make sure that all health and safety requirements are met. "If the employer does not provide any work equipment, the employee is generally entitled to reimbursement of the costs associated with the establishment of the workplace," explains Volker Görzel, specialist lawyer for labor law, at "RTL".

However, since the actual costs are often difficult to determine in reality, the situation is different. Although it should be clear to everyone that home office increases the electricity bill, the exact value is difficult to quantify to the cent. Görzel’s tip: “I recommend my clients to agree on a monthly lump sum for expenses of 50 euros.”

That would either be through an individual agreement or through the works council. Then please do not contact us directly. After all, in Germany there is a nationwide ban on contact because of Corona *.

Corona virus forces home office: How do I deal with additional costs?

The VLH also has recommendations for employees:

  • Regardless of whether with or without a separate study: Employees should have a written certificate from their employer stating the period during which their workplace was not available in the company and the employee therefore had to work in the home office
  • In addition, employees should record exactly when they used their work corner or room (date, hours)
  • Bills for work materials or electricity and telephone costs should be kept

According to VLH, the following basically applies: The more precise the records and evidence are, the greater the chance that the tax office will recognize the expenses.

* fr.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.

List of rubric lists: © Daniel Naupold / dpa

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2020-03-31

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