(2022) Who can claim a home office?

You can claim a home office for tax purposes and deduct the relevant costs as business expenses:

• unlimited, if the office is the centre of all business and professional activities.
• up to 1.250 Euro, if no other workplace is available for the business or professional activity.

In addition, expenses for professionally used rooms at home can also be deducted for tax purposes without limit in the following cases:

• if it is not a home "office", e.g. a storage room, exhibition room, sales room, recording studio for a composer, studio for a painter, lawyer's office, practice rooms for a speech therapist.
• if it is not a "home" office. This is the case if the room is not integrated into the domestic sphere and does not form a structural unit with the residential part, e.g. renting an office in another building, additionally rented room in a multi-family house on a different floor from the private flat.
• if the office is open for intensive and permanent public access. In this case, the office is not considered a home office.
• if the room is considered a business premises for the self-employed. This may apply if the office is in close proximity to other business premises, e.g. next to the baker's flat are the bakery, sales room, staff room, and the office where bookkeeping is done.