Ask a tax advisor on the topic of Income tax return

home office

January 10, 2011 | 20,00 EUR | answered by StB Kiehne Katja Kiehne

I am employed and have a home office at my employer's premises. In addition to the income from this employment, I also declare income from investments, financial assets, and rental and leasing activities.

For 2009, I claimed expenses of 1250 euros for a home office for the management of the latter three sources of income. The tax office rejected this with the following reasoning: "Expenses for a home office are not deductible because you have a workplace available for your entire business and professional activities. The key factor here is the center of your overall activity. Your center of activity is already indicated by your dependent main activity."

Question: Is this rejection justified? If not, can I deduct 1250 euros or an unlimited amount for the home office from taxes, like self-employed individuals?

StB Kiehne Katja Kiehne

Dear questioner,

In the context of an initial consultation taking into account your fee threshold, I answer your question as follows:

In principle, the tax office is correct. Because in your case, the home office does not represent the center of your entire business or professional activity.

However, you do not have any other premises available for your three other sources of income, so it may be possible to argue against this.

According to the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court from 06.10.2010, the deduction ban does not apply if no other workspace is provided for business or professional activity.

A maximum deduction of 1,250 euros could be achieved.

Best regards,

Katja Kiehne
Tax consultant
Master of Business Consulting (M.BC.)
Diploma in Financial Management (FH)

If the home office is used to generate different types of income, the deductibility must be assessed separately for each. The expenses should then be divided according to the usage ratio.