Can You do Deduct Your Home Study Even Though You Have an Office at Work?

Are you one of those people who cannot work on non-routine concepts at work? Only the tranquility and seclusion of home provides the inspiration you need. Wouldn't it be nice to deduct that space? The FG Nuremberg has brought some clarification on this matter (re I 317/2002 on 22.6.2004).

This court case discussed the problem if whether the costs for rooms in private homes can be fully deducted for  offering professional purposes. Following the rulings of the highest courts §4 V 1 no. 6 b EStG generally allows room costs in a private apartment to be deducted as office space, which is beyond the control of the Finanzamt – according to the ratio decidendi of this judgment.

Case law defines a “home office“ as a room with its location, function and equipment in a private home but mainly used for preparing theoretical, written, or administrative work. Several rooms can qualify as a “home office” if they form a functional unit either because they are used identical or these rooms support the theoretical, written, or administrative work. All the facts of the case will determine whether a room is private or professional. In the case of a musician, it is imaginable to deduct from a five room apartment two different rooms a "studio for practicing" and an "office for administrative work like writing bills".




Published on the old CMS: 2006/12/28
Read on the old CMS till November 2008: 90 reads