“Home office: taking into account costs for renovation of the apartment”.
What is a home office?
If a room in a private apartment is used for business purposes, the expenses attributable to it on a pro rata basis can only be claimed as income-related expenses or business expenses for tax purposes as follows:
- In full, if the study forms the center of the entire professional activity;
- up to the amount of 1,250 euros per year if no other workplace (e.g. at the employer’s) is available for the professional activity.
- Ongoing building costs, such as.
- Rent or building depreciation
- Debt interest for loans for the acquisition of the building
- Water, energy, cleaning costs
- Charges such as property tax, garbage collection, chimney sweeping
- Building insurances
can be taken into account on a pro rata basis according to the ratio of the area of the study to the total living area.
Difference between repair and renovation!
A distinction must be made in the case of expenses for repair or renovation: If the measures relate to the workroom itself, they can be deducted (in full) and included in the workroom rule (see above).
For measures on the building or the dwelling in general (e.g. repair of the roof, the facade or the entrance to the dwelling), pro rata consideration is possible.
Workroom – Decision – Federal Fiscal Court
In a recent decision, the Federal Fiscal Court has clarified that renovation or conversion costs that relate exclusively to one (other) room of the apartment cannot be claimed as general building costs (on a pro rata basis).
In the case in dispute, the bathroom and parts of the hallway in front of it in the apartment were extensively remodeled. The court ruled that the corresponding costs also did not belong proportionately to the workroom costs, as they concerned a room that served private residential purposes exclusively or more than to an only subordinate extent.
A deduction of the conversion costs was therefore out of the question in the case of the judgment.