Is the relocation allowance also deductible for a second household?

As part of maintaining a second household, various costs can be deducted as business expenses. Deductible costs include the move to the second home at the place of employment and the termination of the second home after the end of the external work.

You can claim the following as moving expenses: transport costs (removal company, rental van, helper wages, moving boxes), travel expenses on the moving day and for viewing properties, estate agent fees. The question is whether the "lump sum for other moving expenses" is also deductible.

Currently, the Thuringia Finance Court has ruled that, as part of maintaining a second household, the costs for moving to the second home at the place of employment are only deductible with proof and the moving expense allowance is not considered. According to income tax guidelines, the moving expense allowance is explicitly excluded for maintaining a second household (R 9.11 para. 9 sentence 2 LStR). In the case of a "small" move to the place of employment, the main residence is not relocated (FG Thuringia of 29.6.2015, 2 K 698/14).

Moving expenses as part of maintaining a second household include not only the move to the second home but also the return move from the second home to the main home. The moving expense allowance is also not deductible for the return move, as the main residence is not relocated.

The situation is different if you end the second household by relocating the family household and main residence to your external place of employment with a "large" move. In this case, the moving expenses are not deductible as costs of maintaining a second household but as general business expenses (according to § 9 para. 1 sentence 1 EStG). And in this case, you can also claim the moving expense allowance.