When can I claim professional literature?

If you use specialist literature for your professional activities, you can deduct the expenses for books, journals, and newspapers. Specialist books with a clear title indicating professional use are readily accepted.

For general educational books, proving professional use is more difficult. However, you should know that a rejection by the tax office with the reason that it is not a specialist book is not sufficient. The actual use of the book is paramount. You must prove to the tax officer that you use the book professionally. You can also deduct magazines as specialist literature (professional magazine, professional journals) if they are professional journals that provide job-related information.

The deductibility of magazines is complicated by the fact that many magazines cover a wide range of topics and do not exclusively provide job-related information. In such cases, the magazines are not recognised. A similar issue arises with the deductibility of newspapers.

You cannot deduct typical daily newspapers due to their broad range of topics. However, non-typical daily newspapers, such as the Handelsblatt, can be deducted if you can prove predominantly professional use. Of course, you must also provide evidence of the expenses for specialist literature. If you have not collected the relevant receipts, you can enter the amount of 110 Euro without proof.

However, this is not an allowance to which you have a legal entitlement, but merely a non-objection limit. Up to this amount, tax officers are supposed to waive receipts. The non-objection limit applies to work-related items in general. So if you have already used the 110 Euro for work clothing, proof of expenses for specialist literature is still required.