SteuerGo FAQs

(2022) Which costs are tax-deductible in the event of a death?

Deductible funeral expenses include costs for:

• Doctor's fee for post-mortem examination
• Flowers (e.g. decoration of the mourning hall, arrangements, grave decorations, wreaths, bouquets as grave offerings)
• Funeral directors (e.g. handling all formalities, dressing, laying out, bedding, hygienic care, organisation)
• Funeral stationery (e.g. obituaries in daily newspapers, club magazines, etc., letters, cards and thank-you notes)
• Travel expenses (e.g. journeys, funeral, funeral directors, handling formalities)
• Cemetery administration (e.g. fees for burial, funeral service, grave site usage fee)
• Fees (e.g. death certificate, obtaining documents for registration)
• Grave maintenance
• Grave site, grave cross, grave (memorial), gravestone (e.g. costs for erection, edging, initial planting, memorial inscription, stonemason, border)
• Musical arrangement of the funeral service by organists or other musicians
• Postage (e.g. for obituaries, thank-you notes and correspondence)
• Coffin for burial or cremation (with coffin fittings)
• Pallbearers
• Interest on debts (for loan to pay funeral expenses)
• Shroud
• Funeral service (only expenses for organisation, invitations, etc.)
• Funeral orator
• Transport
• Decorative urns