Am I also entitled to the travel allowance if I use a company car?

You can also receive the travel allowance if you use a company car for commuting. However, you must note the following special features:

Even if your employer bases the calculation of the taxable benefit on the shortest route, you may still declare a longer route in your tax return if it is more convenient and you use it regularly.

For journeys between your home and primary workplace, you must pay tax on a surcharge in addition to the private usage value of 1 percent of the list price. This amounts to 0.03 percent of the list price per kilometre of distance for commuting each month.

In return, you may then, like any employee, claim the travel allowance of 0.30 Euro / 0.38 Euro per kilometre of distance as income-related expenses. If your employer taxes the taxable benefit for the company car at a flat rate of 15 percent, you must deduct the monthly flat-rate taxed amount from your income-related expenses and can only deduct the remainder as income-related expenses.

Even if the employer has only assumed 180 days for the calculation of the benefit value for simplification purposes, you can, for example, claim 220 days when deducting income-related expenses.

(2023): Am I also entitled to the travel allowance if I use a company car?

How do I enter different commuting distances after a move?

If you changed your place of residence due to a move during a tax year, the daily commuting distance to your primary workplace usually changes as well.

In this case, you must enter two primary workplaces in Lohnsteuer kompakt to input the correct distances, e.g.:

• "Workplace, address old residence"
• Distance 25 km, 112 working days, 5-day week
• "Workplace, address new residence"
• Distance 15 km, 118 working days, 5-day week

Don't forget to also claim any moving expenses in your tax return!

(2023): How do I enter different commuting distances after a move?

How are travel expenses recorded for car pools?

If carpools are formed for the daily commute to work, each participant in the carpool can claim the commuting allowance for themselves.

Detours to pick up and drop off passengers are not considered when calculating the distance. For the driver, travel costs are deductible as income-related expenses with no limit. However, for passengers, the maximum deductible amount is 4,500 Euro.

(2023): How are travel expenses recorded for car pools?

How do I enter travel expenses correctly if the number of my working days changes?

If the number of working days per week has increased or decreased during the year, you should make several entries for travel expenses, e.g.:

"Primary place of work, 5-day week"

• Distance 15 km, 115 working days, 5-day week

"Primary place of work, 6-day week"

• Distance 15 km, 140 working days, 6-day week

Journeys to work, specifically to the primary place of work, are deductible at a rate of 30 cents per kilometre; in 2021, 35 cents applied from the 21st kilometre, and since 2022, 38 cents apply from the 21st kilometre. In principle, every employee is required to state the exact number of working days in their tax return. The commuter allowance is only granted for these days. To check whether the number of declared working days is plausible, holiday and sick days must also be declared. Since 2020, the tax return also asks for business travel days and homeworking days.

However, it can be very tedious to determine the exact number of working days. Who keeps a daily tally? And then there are employees who also visit the workplace at weekends, sometimes unexpectedly. Therefore, the tax offices set so-called non-detection limits decades ago. They generally accepted 220 to 230 journeys for a five-day week and 260 to 280 journeys for a six-day week between home and workplace. It should be noted that these are internal limits of the tax offices, and there is no legal entitlement to their application, even though the Munich Tax Court ruled a few years ago that the tax offices should accept 230 days (FG Munich of 12.12.2008, 13 K 4371/07).

The pandemic has changed everything. Many work from home and do not have daily commutes to the workplace. In such cases, they can claim 6 Euro per day as business expenses or even the costs for a home office. However, travel expenses cannot be claimed due to the lack of journeys. The tax authorities now increasingly require an employer's certificate confirming the actual working days and visits to the primary place of work. The previous rule of 220 or 230 journeys per year no longer automatically applies in the Corona years.

(2023): How do I enter travel expenses correctly if the number of my working days changes?

How do I enter different commuting distances if I change employer?

If you changed employer during a tax year, the daily commuting distance and therefore the amount of the commuter allowance usually change as well.

If you changed employer during the year, you can easily enter multiple primary workplaces:

"Primary workplace old employer"

• Distance 30 km, 80 working days, 5-day week

"Primary workplace new employer"

• Distance 15 km, 150 working days, 5-day week

(2023): How do I enter different commuting distances if I change employer?

How do I enter travel expenses when using different modes of transport?

If you travel to your employer using different modes of transport (car/public transport/passenger in a carpool), it is best to record these with two separate entries, e.g.:

"Primary place of work, transport by car"

• Distance 25 km, 164 working days, 5-day week

"Primary place of work, transport by public transport"

• Distance 25 km, 66 working days, 5-day week

(2023): How do I enter travel expenses when using different modes of transport?