Photovoltaic system
December 17, 2012 | 25,00 EUR | answered by StB Manuela Ponikwar
Dear Sir or Madam,
I have a question regarding the registration of a photovoltaic system.
In our case:
My husband is an employee in tax class 3 and earns approximately 40,000 € gross per year.
I am currently on parental leave (with 3 children, the youngest is 7 months old). I currently receive 550 € in parental allowance and child benefit. In 2013 or 2014, I will return to work as an office clerk for about 15-20 hours per week and may also operate the music band (small business - partnership: My mother and I) on the side.
Who would it be more advantageous for us to register the photovoltaic system under, my husband or myself? Would it be more sensible to register it under the small business or as a commercial enterprise (both are possible)? Is it better to register with VAT and sales tax? Honestly, I am not familiar with this (regarding photovoltaics).
In the future, my husband will always have the higher income compared to me.
Dear inquirer,
Thank you very much for your inquiry, which I would like to answer considering the limited presentation of the facts as follows:
If you do not opt for separate taxation in the future (by the way, there is no longer separate taxation from 2013 onwards) and are jointly assessed with your husband using the splitting tariff, the allocation of income for income tax purposes is unproblematic, as your joint income is used for the calculation of the tax burden.
It is only important for the allocation that the invoices for the installation, maintenance, insurance, and network operator are issued to the correct spouse and not necessarily run through a "wrong" account.
The operation of a PV system is always considered a commercial business for tax purposes (registration with the Chamber of Commerce or trade office is usually not necessary).
For the PV company, you should opt out of the small business regulation for VAT purposes and voluntarily become subject to VAT.
Therefore, VAT is charged on your revenues (the feed-in tariff you receive from the network operator).
You can include the waiver in the tax registration form for commencing commercial activities. You may then be issued a new tax number, depending on the tax office.
Since you do not issue invoices yourself for the PV system but receive credits from the network operator, you must inform the network operator of your VAT liability. This is usually also requested in a form.
With VAT liability, you are entitled to full input tax deduction. Therefore, you can reclaim the entire input tax, especially for the system itself and its installation, from the tax office.
You must then submit monthly VAT advance returns in the year of commencement of PV feed-in and in the following year, as well as an annual profit determination (income-expenditure account) as part (to annex G) of your personal income tax return.
If the system was already ordered but not yet settled this year, you could already claim a tax-reducing investment allowance for 2012. Additionally, there is the option to use special depreciation for the system.
Unfortunately, I cannot address these optimization possibilities within the scope of this consultation offer, so I am only providing the keyword for further research :-)
I hope this information is helpful to you.
Best regards,
Manuela Ponikwar
Tax consultant
www.ponikwar.de
