SteuerGo FAQs

Field help: Total amount of depreciation on collective items

Please enter here low-value assets with acquisition or production costs between 250 Euro and 1.000 Euro without VAT, which are recorded in a collective item.

This collective item is to be distributed evenly over 5 years. The collective depreciation thus amounts to 20% per year in the year of acquisition and in each of the following four years.

This is what you need to know about collective items and collective depreciation:

• The net amount (without VAT) between 250 Euro and 1.000 Euro is decisive for entry in the collective item. This also applies to small entrepreneurs who are not entitled to deduct input tax on the basis of the small entrepreneur regulation pursuant to sect. 19, para. 1 of the VAT Act (UStG), as well as to entrepreneurs who carry out turnover tax-free transactions, for example, doctors (R 9b, para. 2 of the German Income Tax Regulations (EStR)). However, the collective item is depreciated from the gross amount (including VAT). Those entitled to deduct input tax claim VAT as input tax.
• There is no option to depreciate the costs over the normal service life instead of the collective item.
• Each year a new collective item (new account) must be created and written off over 5 years.
• In the first year, collective depreciation also amounts to 20%, even if the asset or individual assets of the collective item are not acquired until the end of the year. The "pro rata temporis " depreciation, as usual, does not apply here.
• Transactions relating to the individual asset have no tax effect. For example, if an individual asset is sold, withdrawn or depreciated, the value of the collective item and the collective depreciation are not affected. This means that the asset withdrawn cannot be cancelled from the pool. For example, if you buy an asset for 800 Euro and sell it again a short time later, you must post the proceeds as income and pay full tax but you may not cancel the asset from the collective item pool.