Home has become a regular workplace for most of the employees in Germany, since the beginning of the COVID – 19 pandemic and it is something that would become the new normality even after the pandemic. Home office means that you are working from home be it your couch, desk, or kitchen table or even a separate room. For those without Individual workspace are still allocated 5€ per day for a maximum of 120 days and those with individual room can claim upto 1250€ per year. There are certain requirements that apply under different conditions to claim these as expenses.
ViewEmployees have to travel to different cities or even to different countries as a part of their business trips to visit their business partners, for business meetings and conferences. In most of the cases, the employer bears the expenses. If an employee has to pay for the accommodation, travel tickets, etc., These expenses can be claimed in their tax return. If you’re traveling using a car or public transportation to your workplace, you can claim 30 cents per kilometer one way. If the travel exceeds 21 km, you can claim 35 cents per kilometer.
ViewThe financial year of Germany is between the months of January & December. Tax return filing is the process of declaring both the income & expenses one had incurred during a financial year. By filing taxes regularly every year one can utilize the chance of getting back the taxes paid or avoid paid fines on pending taxes.
Although commonly most students don’t file taxes during their study life. As an expat student some of us have paid hefty tuition fees or bought things necessary for the purpose of studies/training or spent money in order to get internship or thesis on applications, photographs and even tickets to interviews, all these could be claimed in taxes even if one had not worked in that particular year. Each application sent has a value in terms of tax claim and all this can be filed as loss carryforward (verlustsvortrag). In the following years, when one starts to work this can be used to ones advantage. As an additional information , the interest paid on student loan can be claimed as an expense if the profile reaches a tax consultant who has experience with expats.
As an Employee, there are more expenses that can be claimed under several categories. Some of the commonly utilized categories by expats are Home office expenses, travel expenses, training expenses, advertisement expenses & maintenance expenses. Some of the not so commonly utilited tax saving categories are relocation expenses, child allowance (kinderfeibetrag), double housing allowances. Investors utilize the tax benefits available under riester pension plan, rürup pension plan & real estate investors. Our Investment advisors can calculate your tax saving potential and the professional tax consultants can help you do the tax return in short time & economically.