SteuerGo FAQs

(2022) Can I claim a deduction for my home office?

Expenses for a home office can be deducted as income-related expenses or business expenses if

• no other workplace is available for the professional or business activity, up to 1.250 Euro.
• the home office is the centre of all professional and business activities, with no limit on the amount.

You can claim a home office for tax purposes if "no other workplace" is available for your business or professional activity. In this case, home office costs can be deducted as income-related expenses or business expenses up to a maximum amount of 1.250 Euro. The maximum amount of 1.250 Euro is an annual amount.

The maximum amount is not reduced if the home office is only used for part of the year or if "no other workplace" is available for only a few months. Only a workplace that is suitable for office work and is set up accordingly is considered as "another workplace".

The decisive factor for assessing the "home office as the centre" is that the qualitative focus of the overall activity is in the home office. This is the case if the essential and defining activities for the profession are carried out there. The "centre" is therefore determined by the substantive focus of the professional activity.

This assessment is not primarily based on the duration of use. The time (quantitative) usage is at most an indication: extensive use suggests the centre, while minimal use suggests otherwise. However, the home office can still be the centre even if the time spent there is less than 50% of the total professional and business activity and the external activities predominate in terms of time.

It is important that the work in the home office is so significant for the profession that it defines it. Is "no other workplace" available if employees decided to work from home during the corona crisis for health protection reasons and did not visit their workplace?

Currently, the Federal Government answers this question as follows:

The tax deductibility of expenses for a home office also applies if the taxpayer decided to work from home due to the corona crisis or did not visit their workplace for health protection reasons. Another workplace is only available to the taxpayer if they can actually use it to the required extent and in the required manner.

If the taxpayer cannot actually use their business or professional workplace, e.g. for health protection reasons, no other workplace is available for their business or professional activity. The deduction requirements are to be checked by the relevant state tax authorities in each individual case as part of the tax assessment (BT-Drucksache 19/19321 of 19.5.2020, page 3).