Non-deductible expenses

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Non-deductible expenses are defined in German income tax law in Section 12 EStG . According to this, certain expenses may not be deducted from the individual types of income or from the total amount of income. Above all, costs of private life are affected , even if there may be a certain connection to taxable income in individual cases.

Expenses for the taxpayer's household and the maintenance of his family members (Section 12 No. 1 EStG)

Expenses for the household of the taxpayer and for the upkeep of his family members are neither operating expenses nor as business expenses deductible.

Living costs in this sense are in particular expenses for

  • flat
  • nutrition
  • dress
  • general school education
  • raising children
  • personal needs of daily life, e.g. B. Preservation of health, care, hygiene articles
  • newspaper
  • Broadcast or
  • Attending cultural and sporting events
  • German courses from foreigners
  • naturalization
  • Divorce and marriage contract
  • Take on an honorary position

These private expenses can be claimed as special expenses or extraordinary burdens in individual cases and insofar as legal regulations permit .

Voluntary donations and donations based on a voluntarily justified legal obligation and to dependent persons (§ 12 No. 2 EStG)

Voluntary donations and donations based on a voluntarily justified legal obligation are usually not deductible. A donation is voluntary if the donor is not legally obliged to do so. A donation based on a voluntarily justified legal obligation is a donation that has been voluntarily contractually guaranteed.

Contributions to legally dependent persons:

Benefits paid to a person who is legally dependent on the taxpayer or his / her spouse are not deductible. The following are legally entitled to maintenance:

  • Spouses
  • Primarily relatives (e.g. grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren)
  • Adoptive parents and children

Maintenance payments to the divorced or permanently separated spouse can be claimed as special expenses in accordance with Section 10 (1) No. 1 with the consent of the recipient.

Non-deductible taxes (Section 12 No. 3 EStG)

Taxes are only deductible if they are business expenses or business expenses. Personal taxes are not deductible and include:

The church tax can be claimed as a special expense according to § 10 Paragraph 1 No. 4. The sales tax for the removal of goods and services for non-company purposes (e.g. removal of goods for private purposes) is also not deductible. Additional tax benefits in addition to the taxes mentioned, such as deferred interest , late payment surcharges or late payment surcharges, are also not deductible.

Fines (§ 12 No. 4 EStG)

Fines set in criminal proceedings are not deductible . Even if these legal consequences are factually related to the generation of income, they are atonement for criminal injustice and punishment for personal guilt. However, the costs of criminal defense and criminal proceedings are not affected by the prohibition on deduction.

Prohibition of sharing mixed expenses

Non-deductible mixed expenses

If there are expenses that are both operational / professional and private, a deduction of the expenses as a whole is not possible if the mixed expenses interlock in such a way that a separation is not possible and a basis for the estimate is not recognizable. This is particularly the case if there are no objectifiable criteria for a division.

Deductible Mixed Expenses

Only if the expenses can be easily and properly separated according to objective characteristics, a pro rata deduction remains possible (R 12.1 EStR) The scope of the distribution prohibition must be checked in 3 steps:

  1. It must be a mixed expenditure. Typically job-related expenses (e.g. doctor's coat, special tools) are not "mixed" and therefore fully deductible. Usually “mixed expenses” are, for example, bourgeois clothing or cosmetics, for which the presumption of private shared use is not just insignificant.
  2. If the expenses are mixed, it should be asked whether the cost of living or also the cost of generating income are not of minor importance, i. H. less than 10 v. H. amount.
  3. If the connection with both lifestyle and employment is not of subordinate importance, it must be determined whether a separation based on "objective characteristics" is possible. B. the area of ​​the doctor's room or the mileage of a car.

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