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Calculation for the existence of the requirements for a private vehicle as necessary business assets

March 26, 2013 | 25,00 EUR | answered by StB Patrick Färber

My question relates to the presence of the prerequisites of a private vehicle as necessary business assets (i.e. the mandatory allocation to business assets).

Assuming a vehicle is privately owned and used for trips between home and the place of business, trips to customers (freelance work), and purely private trips.

It is now to be determined whether the business use is more than 50%. To do this, I would take the total number of kilometers driven within a year and then split it:

I found the following information on the topic on a page of the IHK Stuttgart:

Necessary business assets:

1. Allocation of the motor vehicle to business assets or to private assets?

But also vehicles that are used mixed, partly privately and partly for business purposes, must be allocated to business assets if the business use (including trips between home and the workplace) is more than 50 percent. Business use also includes the use on trips between home and the place of business and trips to the family home.

I assume this is correct.

What is not clear to me now is whether trips between home and the place of business should simply be taken into account (since only half can be claimed for tax purposes) or if the round trip should be considered.

Example:

Total annual mileage with the vehicle is 20,000 km

Trips between home and the place of business (round trip) annually 6,000 km or 3,000 km (one way)

Purely private trips 9,000 km

Trips to customers 5,000 km

Possibility 1 of determination:

3,000 km (1/2 share for trips between home and the place of business) + 9,000 = 12,000 km private

3,000 km (the other 1/2 share for trips between home and the place of business) + 5,000 km (trips to customers) = 8,000 km business use

therefore, the business use is less than 50% = no necessary business assets

Possibility 2 of determination:

9,000 km for private trips

6,000 km (1/1 share for trips between home and the place of business) + 5,000 km (trips to customers) = 11,000 km

therefore, the business use is over 50% and thus the vehicle has become necessary business assets

I would also be interested to know where the relevant legal provision can be found.

Thank you very much!

StB Patrick Färber

Dear Questioner,

may I briefly summarize the very well-prepared and researched question at this late hour? :-)

Variant 2 is correct!

Explanation: The fact that trips from home to work are also considered business trips is based on § 4 para. 5 sent.1 no. 6 EStG. The simple distance (as with the commuter flat rate) is not applied here, hence the double distance.
The tax authorities assume that business use is more than 50% without a proof period (3 months) if, among other things, the distance between home and workplace/family home trips exceeds the 50% threshold in relation to the total annual kilometers.

I hope this helps!

Best regards,
Patrick Färber
Tax Advisor
patrickfaerber@arcor.de