SteuerGo FAQs

(2022) What can be deducted for work on a vehicle?

If you carry out your professional activity on a vehicle, you generally do not have a "main place of work", so the activity is considered off-site work.

This applies to:

• Truck drivers,
• Coach drivers,
• Bus drivers,
• Tram drivers,
• Refuse collectors,
• Taxi drivers,
• Train drivers (exception: industrial railway train drivers).

You often have to report to a fixed location (pick-up point) to take over the vehicle.

What is tax-deductible?

• Journeys between your home and the pick-up point can only be deducted using the commuting allowance.
• Despite the commuting allowance, you can still deduct meal allowances as business expenses if the absence is more than 8 hours (expenses, outlays). Since there is no main place of work, you are working off-site. No main place of work is assumed; only the application of the commuting allowance is required. There is no three-month limit, as each journey is considered a new off-site activity.

Truck drivers can claim an overnight allowance of 8 Euro per calendar day as business expenses - in addition to the "normal" meal allowance. This applies to the day of arrival or departure and each calendar day with an absence of 24 hours during an off-site activity in Germany or abroad (§ 9 Abs. 1 Satz 3 Nr. 5b EStG, introduced by the "Act on Further Tax Promotion of Electric Mobility and Amendment of Other Tax Regulations").

 

The Federal Fiscal Court has recently ruled that the area of operation for an industrial railway train driver constitutes a main place of work and not a large-scale work area (BFH ruling of 1.10.2020, VI R 36/18).

The Federal Fiscal Court has recently ruled that the depot is not the main place of work for a refuse collector if they only listen to the tour management announcement, collect the logbook, vehicle documents and keys, and check the vehicle lighting there (BFH ruling of 2.9.2021, VI R 25/19).