SteuerGo FAQs

(2023) Which route is relevant for the distance in kilometres?

The decisive factor for the distance is the shortest usable road connection between your home and your workplace. The key factor is not the "regular workplace" but the so-called "primary workplace" - a small but sometimes significant difference.

If you regularly use a longer but obviously more convenient route, the tax office is usually agreeable. A route is more convenient if you can reach your workplace faster and more punctually than via the shortest route.

Many tax offices will only accept a longer route if the time saving is at least 20 minutes per journey. However, this condition is not a criterion for rejecting a longer route. Rather, the time saving must be considered in relation to the total duration of the journey (BFH ruling of 16.11.2011, BStBl. 2012 II p. 520). This means:

• The time saving should be at least 10% of the travel time required for the shortest connection.
• A route can be "obviously more convenient" than the shortest connection, even without a time saving, if the longer route includes better roads, fewer traffic lights, fewer town crossings, less traffic, etc. Therefore, an "obviously more convenient" road connection may exist even if only a small or no time saving is expected, but the route proves to be more convenient due to other circumstances than the shortest connection.

Tip: If you take a longer route for health reasons, for example, because you cannot drive over a high bridge due to vertigo, the tax office must also accept this route. However, the travel costs cannot be deducted as extraordinary expenses, even if the medical officer has certified the anxiety (FG Hamburg of 24.3.2003, II 61/02).

If you use several means of transport for your commute (bicycle plus public transport), the shortest road connection is always used to calculate the allowance. Additional kilometres driven are not taken into account in this case. Furthermore, only full kilometres are taken into account, not partial kilometres.

Even if you have to make several trips to your workplace per day for work reasons, you can only claim the commuting allowance once per day. Trips for lunch are not deductible, as these trips fall within the realm of private life.

To relieve the burden on long-distance commuters, the commuting allowance was increased from the 21st kilometre, regardless of the means of transport used, as follows:

• from 1.1.2021 by 5 cents to 35 cents,
• from 1.1.2022 by a further 3 cents to 38 cents.

The increase is initially limited until 31 December 2026.

Mr X's workplace is 25 kilometres from his home via the shortest route. However, if he uses the expressway for his commute, he drives 17 kilometres more but saves 45 minutes of travel time.

Commuting allowance for 25 km route: 230 working days x 20 kilometres x 0.30 Euro = 1.380 Euro, plus 230 days x 5 kilometres x 0.38 Euro = 437.00 Euro; total = 1.817.00 Euro.

Commuting allowance for 42 km route: 230 working days x 20 kilometres x 0.30 Euro = 1.380 Euro; plus 230 days x 22 kilometres x 0.38 Euro = 1.922.80 Euro; total = 3.202.80 Euro.

In this case, you must explain the circumstances of the "detour" to the tax office and explicitly point out the time saving.