(2023)
When should a household saving be taken into account?
If you move into a nursing home, residential care home or the care department of a retirement home or residential complex due to care needs, the high care home costs can be deducted as extraordinary expenses according to § 33 EStG, with the tax office applying a reasonable burden.
In this case, as your own food and accommodation costs are saved, the deductible care home costs must first be reduced by a so-called household saving. However, this only applies if your own household is dissolved.
However, the deductible care home costs must not be reduced by a household saving as long as the person in need of care maintains their household. In this case, the fixed costs of the household, such as rent, mortgage interest, basic fees for electricity, water, etc., and cleaning costs continue. There is no general time limit for this. Rather, due to the psychological burden associated with dissolving the long-standing home and permanently moving into a care home, the household saving should not be deducted as long as the home is maintained.
By the way: This also applies if the care recipient's home is still occupied by their spouse. In such a case, fixed costs arise due to the then oversized home, which make the deduction of a household saving from the care home costs appear unjustified.
If both spouses move into a care home together due to their care needs and dissolve their household, the tax offices want to deduct the household saving twice, even though only one joint household is dissolved. This has also been confirmed by the Nuremberg Fiscal Court (FG Nuremberg of 4.5.2016, 3 K 915/15; Revision VI R 22/16).
By the way: If both spouses are accommodated in a residential care home due to illness, a household saving is to be applied for each spouse (BGH judgment of 4.10.2017, VI R 22/16, BStBl 2018 II p. 179).
