3-month deadline for meal expenses at the same place of work also applies to temporally and contractually separate employment relationships?
I worked as a doctor in temporary employment exclusively at a single clinic in 2016. I was absent from my place of residence for 3 to 4 consecutive days per week, staying overnight at the workplace during that time. However, there were several separate employment relationships with the same employer (the same temporary employment agency), but I was always "loaned out" to the same clinic during each assignment. Each employment relationship was established by its own employment contract and therefore contractually distinct from the others. During the time between the employment relationships, which was always significantly less than 4 weeks, I was registered as unemployed with the employment agency and received unemployment benefits. If there had been a single employment relationship, the meal allowances (a flat rate of €12 for arrival and departure days or €24 for a 24-hour absence from the place of residence) would have only been tax deductible as work-related expenses for a period of 3 months when working at the same place of employment.
My question is: Does the fact that these were temporally and contractually separate employment relationships with the same employer bypass the 3-month period, allowing me to claim meal allowances in my tax return for up to 3 months each time a new employment relationship begins, even though it was always the same offsite workplace and the interruption between the employment relationships was less than 4 weeks each time? Are there any statements from the Ministry of Finance or court rulings on this matter that I can refer to in case of rejection by the tax office?
