Field help: (2023) Designation

Enter a designation, for example, the type of work performed or the name of the service provider.

It must be household work that household members could usually do themselves. These include:

• Apartment cleaning by a self-employed cleaning assistant
• Cooking, ironing, childcare by a self-employed household helper
• Window cleaning by a window cleaner
• Stairwell cleaning
• Relocation company
• Gardening by an independent gardener
• Household work through a service agency (e.g. emptying the mailbox, watering flowers)

You can also find an exemplary list of favoured and not favoured household services and work done by tradesmen, in the letter of the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) dated 09.11.2016.

Important: If the service is not carried out in your household, the tax office will not recognise the expenses. This is the case, for example, if someone helps you with the purchases or does them for you. Even expenses on a day nanny (Tagesmutter) who looks after children at her/his home or the costs of your laundry washed at the laundry will not be recognised.