Something is happening with the tax treatment of the home working environment. The currently applicable legal situation comes from the pre-Corona era: According to this, income-related costs or operating expenses for the domestic workplace can only be taken into account for tax purposes if the work has taken place in the specially reserved study. But tax policy reacted to the corona crisis with a two-year special measure.

Does it fit or not? MPs in the German Bundestag had repeatedly called for corona-related home work at the kitchen table, in the work corner in the living room or on the balcony to be taken into account in the tax as well as other income-related expenses or business expenses. However, the experts in the scientific services raised concerns about tax system.

On December 9th Break the knots: The promotion of work at home even without a dedicated home office has been included in the Annual Tax Act 2020. The Bundestag passed the law on 10. December decided. Only two days later the Federal Council also agreed.

Did you get five euros? That The law provides for a flat rate for working days exclusively spent in the home office, which can be deducted from the tax return: five euros per day can be claimed as income-related expenses or operating expenses. The flat rate is limited to 600 euros per year, which is 120 corresponds to working days. Initially it only applies to 2020 and 2021.

You cannot claim it in addition to the already deductible proportionate rent, energy and cleaning costs for a dedicated study – here There is a strict either-or. As before, however, additional expenses for work equipment can be deducted.

It is important that the home office flat rate is not in addition to the employee income-related expenses flat rate of 1000 Euro is granted. The tax office takes this so-called lump sum for advertising expenses into account for employees without further evidence. Anyone who does not claim any verifiable advertising expenses that, together with their home office daily flat rates, exceed the 1000 euro limit

When juggling with proofs and lump sums, it is advisable to consider whether you can bring unplanned purchases forward: Movable items up to a value of Euros can be deducted in full as business expenses in the year of purchase. For more expensive things you have to spread the expenses over several tax years.

No more commuters? For those days for which you enter the home office flat rate, the distance flat rate (the so-called commuter flat rate) does not apply. It is currently for the distance between home and place of work 30 Cent per kilometer of distance (return trip). If you compare the two instruments, it is worthwhile for those who can choose to travel up to 16 km the home office flat rate. From 17. Kilometers gives the distance flat rate more than the flat rate for a home office day:

17 0, 30 = 5, 10

It should be noted that the new flat rate is only for a maximum of 120 Days in the year is granted.

From January 1st 2021 the commuter flat rate for journeys increases from 20. Kilometers to 31 Cent per kilometer distance. These sentences should be up to 31. December 2023 apply. Then you should start from 21. Kilometers 38 Cent / distance kilometer.

A calculation example for the year 2020 at 205 working days and a distance of 37 Kilometers between home and work looks like this:

(205 20 0, 30) + (205 · 17 0, 35) = 2449, 75

In this case, the year 2021 proud 2275, 75 Deduct euros instead of just 2275, 50 Euro as in the year 2020.

It has not yet been clarified whether the person claiming the home office flat rate can still fully deduct a public transport ticket or subscription purchased at the beginning of the year for the journey to work.

2 / 2021 In c’t 2 / 2021 take a look inside the crystal ball and shed light on the IT trends of the coming years. You will learn how you can surf privately and securely, and which browser supports this particularly well. In the IT salary report, we examine whether the pandemic is a good job engine. We test multifunctional printers for the home office, show you how to protect your NAS from hacker attacks, and introduce a universal Windows boot stick. You can read this and much more in c’t 2 / 2021. The issue will be available from January 1st 2020 in the Heise shop and at the well-stocked magazine kiosk.

(psz)