Business expenses despite company car?
May 26, 2014 | 30,00 EUR | answered by Peter Lipp
My wife works as an employee in the field service of a company. There is no workplace available for her in the company itself. Therefore, preparatory and follow-up work is carried out by her in a home office.
Furthermore, she has been provided with a company car, which she was able to use privately with 6000 km until 2013 and with 10,000 km from 2014 onwards. For this, 1% of the list price of the car is added to her gross monthly income, which is subject to taxation. It is a VW Golf 7 Variant. The gross surcharge amounts to 250 €.
Question 1: If she drives to the employer's office in Berlin or to an office in the internal service in the state of Brandenburg, where she occasionally has work, can she claim these kilometers as advertising costs for the journey to work?
Until 2011, these kilometers were recognized by the tax office, but for 2013, they were removed, and at the same time, those from 2012 were retrospectively deducted on the 2013 tax assessment notice. According to the tax office, this is considered a business trip and should not be considered since it is a company car.
Question 2: Can she claim the unused private kilometers in the tax refund?
Kind regards,
M.S.
Dear inquirer,
The provision of a company vehicle does not affect commuting between home and workplace or as of 2014, the first place of work. There is a standard mileage allowance that also applies when a vehicle is provided for use. For all other trips, it is important that actual costs have been incurred. Therefore, business trips carried out with a company car cannot be claimed as travel expenses.
In your case, it is crucial that the employer defines the company headquarters as the first place of work and not the home office. Without this, it will be difficult for a field service employee to not consider the home office as the first place of work.
Retrospectively, it is unlikely that you can make changes, as there is no workplace available in the company. Nevertheless, it must be verified whether the correction made in 2012 is still lawful. Since the notice was definitely legally binding, a change is not readily possible. Correcting the costs set in 2012 in the 2013 notice is not allowed.
The unused kilometers cannot be claimed as advertising costs, as there is no economic burden associated with them.
I hope this sufficiently answers your question, but I am available for further inquiries.
