(2023)
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, for example:
- Professional drivers,
- Coach drivers,
- Bus drivers,
- Tram drivers,
- Refuse collectors,
- Taxi drivers,
- Train drivers (exception: works railway drivers).
You often have to report to a fixed location (pick-up point) to take over the vehicle.
Tax-deductible expenses at a glance:
- Journeys between home and pick-up point: Only travel allowance (30 cents per kilometre; 38 cents from the 21st kilometre).
- Meal allowances for absences of more than 8 hours can be claimed in addition to the travel allowance.
- Professional drivers can claim an overnight allowance of 8 Euro per calendar day, in addition to the normal meal allowance. The overnight allowance applies to arrival and departure days as well as each calendar day with 24-hour absence during off-site work in Germany or abroad (§ 9 Abs. 1 Satz 3 Nr. 5b EStG).
The Federal Fiscal Court has ruled that the area of operation of a works railway 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 also 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 tour book, vehicle documents and keys, and check the vehicle lighting there (BFH ruling of 2.9.2021, VI R 25/19).
