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Home office in the living room: Most people who have been doing their job for months in their own four walls cannot claim a regular office for tax purposes
Photo: Jens Kalaene / dpa
Millions of people in Germany have been working from home since the outbreak of the corona pandemic and usually have to bear additional running costs themselves.
According to a decision by the finance politicians of the grand coalition, they are now to be given some tax relief, reports the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" (FAZ).
According to the plans, employees should be able to claim a flat rate of 5 euros per day and a maximum of 600 euros per year.
That's not much: if the tax office recognizes a study as an alternative, it is much more attractive from a tax point of view.
However, the requirements for this are considerably stricter and regularly cause disputes with the tax authorities.
"The home office flat rate is the flexible answer to the encrusted case law on the home office - unbureaucratic and easy to understand", promotes the CSU finance politician Sebastian Brehm in the FAZ for the new plans.
The move is intended to "relieve those who have achieved enormous things from home during the pandemic".
According to the report, it is still unclear whether the new lump sum will be granted in addition to the employee lump sum of 1000 euros.
If it did, everyone would benefit - depending on their individual burden.
However, if the new lump sum were taken into account, it could only be claimed by employees with advertising costs of more than 1,000 euros per year.
Without a home office flat-rate, thousands of tax arrears in 2021
In the case of a lump sum in addition to the lump sum, the Federal Ministry of Finance apparently sees legal problems and warns in its concept of "excessive (and thus constitutionally dubious) favoring," says the report.
Without the new home office flat rate, many employees faced the risk of back tax payments in the coming year because travel costs to work would be eliminated.
Basically, the amount of 5 euros per day in the home office is comparable to a distance of 15 kilometers per day, but only up to 120 days because of the 600 euro cap, judges the Federal Ministry of Finance.
However, a full-time employee usually works 220 working days a year and would claim the travel costs for these days and each kilometer of distance with 30 cents.
With a distance of 20 kilometers for a route, 1320 advertising expenses would come together in travel costs alone (220 x 20 x 0.3).
The planned flat rate hardly covers the increased costs, for example for electricity, water or gas, which are also incurred because employees are forced to work at home during the Corona period.
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In June, the CDU had already discussed a kind of home office bonus.
She justified her approach with the fact that under the usual tax law conditions, most corona crisis homeworkers could not claim a study from the tax authorities because they would simply have to set up their workplace in the kitchen or dining room due to lack of space.
The tax deductibility for the costs of a study is tied to strict criteria according to the case law of the Federal Fiscal Court (see here, among others).
For example, the study can almost exclusively only be used for business or professional activities.
A private use of the closed space of only 10 percent or more is an exclusion criterion (BFH, Az. GrS 1/14, Az. XR 1/13, Az. IX R 20/13, Az. IX R 21/13 and Ref. IX R 23/12).
However, if the tax office recognizes the office, the employee can reduce his taxable income by up to 1200 euros per year.
Costs for office furniture and other necessary utensils are additionally (!) Taken into account.
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