Enter your expenses for telephone, Internet and so on.

If you also use your private telephone for business or professional calls, the costs can be deducted as business expenses with the professional use portion. The same applies to the use of a private Internet connection for business purposes. Either you enter the total costs here as business expenses and then you have to add the private portion to the business income as a usage fee, or you can enter only the business costs here in the first place and then save the private portion as a usage fee.

To determine the business use portion, you have two options:

• Flat-rate accounting or
• Itemisation

Specify your accommodation costs and additional travel expenses for business trips.

Accommodation costs

Only the proven actual costs of overnight stays can be deducted for business trips in Germany. If the accommodation costs deducted (for which you have proof) include the cost of breakfast, the total price will be reduced by 20% - in Germany by 4,80 Euro - for breakfast.

Since 2008, only the actual costs of overnight stays abroad can be deducted as business expenses - the country-specific overnight flat rates no longer apply. If the accommodation costs deducted (for which you have proof) include the cost of breakfast, the total price abroad will be reduced by 20% of the country-specific meal flat rate for breakfast.

Additional travel expenses

Deductible travel expenses also include other minor and major expenses incurred in connection with off-site work. These expenses are deductible to the amount proven. If you cannot provide proof, you can also make a credible case for the expenses and estimate the amount.

For example, additional travel expenses could be:

• Travel expenses at the place of destination, for example, for taxi, rental car, tram, underground or suburban train,
• Motorway tolls (e.g. in France),
• Ferry costs (car ferry Meersburg-Konstanz)
• Parking fees,
• Expenses for phone calls and professional correspondence with the employer or with business partners,
• Expenses arising from a traffic accident,
• Entrance fees for business events.

Specify here the expenses for legal and tax advice and accounting.

These could be costs for:

• A lawyer,
• An accountant
• An accounting office or
• A payroll office.

The cost of Lohnsteuer kompakt is also deductible as a business expense.

Enter here the expenses for further training and professional literature.

Expenditure on training within the framework of business activities includes, for example:

• Travel costs by public transport and the own vehicle to the event
• Accommodation costs
• Meal costs
• Course and seminar fees

Enter the expenses for rent / lease of movable assets (excluding motor vehicles).

With the exception of expenses for leasing instalments for motor vehicles, you can enter all rents and leasing expenses for movable assets here.

Please enter the leasing expenses for motor vehicles on the page "Vehicle costs and other travel expenses".

Enter here the expenses for contributions, fees, levies and insurance (excluding those for buildings and motor vehicles).

Note:

• Please enter the contributions, fees, levies and insurance for buildings under other expenses for land used for business purposes.


• Please record the contributions, fees, charges and insurance for motor vehicles under motor vehicle expenses.

Specify here the expenses for advertising costs.

This includes among others

• Expenses for advertisements
• Expenses for commercials
• Expenses for posters

Enter the expense on debt interest of fixed assets.

Debt interest for the financing of fixed assets shall always be deductible and entered in full as business expenses. Insofar as such interest relates to the home office, it must be omitted here and entered on the "Restricted deductibility of business expenses" page.

Specify the VAT amounts included in incoming invoices. They are also deductible as input tax on business expenses at the time of their payment.

Enter your other unrestricted deductible business expenses here. For example, the following expenses can be considered:

• Typical work clothes,
• Commissions paid,
• Contributions to professional associations,
• Additional interest on business taxes,
• Contributions to company insurance,
• Contributions to professional liability insurance,
• Accident costs,
• Relocation costs,
• Compensation payments to third parties for operational reasons.

Enter here the expenses for other debt interests.

Debt interest can only be deducted in full as business expenses as long as you do not withdraw more from your company than the profit and the deposits transferred to the company.

However, if the withdrawals are higher than the sum of profit and deposits (so-called over withdrawals), the debt interest attributable to them cannot be deducted without further ado:

• If the remaining debt interest is less than 2.050 Euro, you can deduct the debt interest in full for reasons of simplification without having to examine the question of the transfer.
• If the remaining debt interest is more than 2.050 Euro, you must divide the debt interest into a deductible and a non-deductible amount. The non-deductible amount is simply determined with 6% of the withdrawal and added to the profit. If withdrawals have already taken place in previous fiscal years, they are included in the assessment basis. If the profit and deposits have not been withdrawn in full in previous years, these withdrawals reduce the basis of assessment. However, the amount added to the profit is limited to a maximum amount, i.e. to the total debt interest incurred in the financial year minus the debt interest attributable to fixed assets and reduced by 2.050 Euro.

Enter all VAT payments that you made to the tax office in the course of the year. These are primarily the advance payments from the advance returns for tax on sales/purchases, the final payment based on the annual return for tax on sales/purchases for the previous year, and any subsequent payments for previous years. The decisive factor in each case is the difference paid between VAT and input tax.

If the tax office has offset the VAT owed against a credit, enter the VAT offset.

If you have several companies, you must distribute payments made uniformly among the different companies.

The sum of the unrestricted deductible business expenses is transferred to the overview page "Business Expenses" to determine the sum of the business expenses.