SteuerGo FAQs

(2023) What can I deduct for full-time training or education?

Kosten für training or further training can be deductible as income-related expenses, business expenses, or special expenses. Expenses for initial vocational training outside of a training service relationship and for a first degree are - at least according to current legal status - only deductible as special expenses up to a limit of 6,000 Euro.

In other cases, expenses can be deducted as income-related expenses or as pre-employment expenses without limit. This also applies to new vocational training after completing an initial training, as well as vocational training within a training service relationship, e.g. apprenticeship, traineeship. Important items include travel, meals, accommodation, and incidental travel expenses.

If you, as an employee, participate in a training measure outside your company as part of your employment, it is considered an off-site activity. You can claim your expenses according to travel expense principles - i.e. travel costs with the business travel allowance, meal allowances, incidental travel expenses, and possibly accommodation costs - as income-related expenses.

This applies to individuals who continue their education or training alongside their job in the evenings and at weekends. This has been the case so far and continues to apply.

However, the situation is different if you undertake a full-time training measure or full-time study outside your employment:

(1) Until 2013, the educational institution does not become a "regular workplace" if an employee undertakes a long-term training measure and visits the educational institution for over four years. This is also because it is not a company facility of the employer. Travel expenses can therefore be deducted according to the rules for off-site activities with the business travel allowance and meal allowances (BFH rulings of 9.2.2012, VI R 42/11 and VI R 44/10).

(2) However, since 2014, it is stipulated in the law that for full-time education, the educational institution is the "first place of work" (even though it is not an employer's facility). This means: Journeys are only deductible with the distance allowance, and meal allowances are not considered. This applies both to further training for unlimited income-related expense deduction and to training for limited special expense deduction.

This is the case if it is vocational training and you are not engaged in any employment alongside it. However, the following are permissible:

• employment up to 20 hours per week,
• marginal employment (mini-job), or
• short-term employment (temporary job).

Currently, the Lower Saxony Finance Court has ruled against the tax authorities that part-time study is not a full-time training measure because part-time study is not designed for the student to devote themselves fully to it. Rather, part-time study (here: according to the description of the Fernuniversität Hagen) is designed to be pursued alongside employment. "The understanding of the Federal Ministry of Finance, according to which a course of study or training measure is always a full-time course of study or full-time training measure in the event of unemployment, cannot be derived from § 9 Abs. 4 Satz 8 EStG" (Lower Saxony Finance Court of 16.2.2022, 4 K 113/20).