Desk: tax deduction 2024

What is work equipment?

Work equipment is all the tools you need tofulfill professional duties. This includes not only physical items such as office furniture, but also certain software programs or a fast internet connection, for example.

The costs incurred for work equipment can be claimed in the tax return as business expenses or income-related expenses , regardless of their location. For example, technical equipment does not necessarily have to be kept in the study, but can also be stored in another room. The only important thing here is that this work equipment is actually used for professional reasons.

• Business expenses: Self-employed persons have the option of deducting their expenses for work equipment as business expenses. This includes everything that is relevant to the exercise of the profession in the respective company (e.g. office equipment).
• Income-related expenses: Employees can deduct professional expenses for their non-self-employed work as income-related expenses. This includes all expenses with which personal income is earned (e.g. travel costs to the workplace, laptop or electrically height-adjustable desk).

Watch out: The tax office in Germany only recognizes a smaller or larger proportion of costs for work equipment if they arepredominantly used for professional purposes . Of course, this is completely unproblematic for items that are undoubtedly needed for work. For example, the tax office does not need to be convinced that a doctor does not wear his medical coat in his free time. However, it is somewhat more difficult with work equipment that can be used both professionally and privately - e.g. a desk.

A desk is of course part of the basic equipment of every office. But when can you deduct a desk from tax in Germany? As with all other work equipment, the same applies here: If the desk is predominantly used for professional purposes, i.e. more than 90% of the costs incurred can be reimbursed by the tax office.

Business expenses or income-related expenses primarily include the acquisition costs of the desk. In addition to the purchase price including VAT, this also includes the respective expenses for e.g. packaging, postage and freight. If the deskcostsless than 800 € net (952 € gross at 19% VAT) , it automatically falls into the category of low-value goods (GWG) and can be written off in the year of purchase.

Good news at this point: Our absolute bestseller, the Desk Pro 2is below the specified limit. This means that you can deduct it directly in the year of purchase. The Desk Pro 2 is so popular for good reason. The unique Yaasa design and the wide selection of colors and sizes make it the perfect desk - and at a consistently fair price.

If you decide on a desk that costs more than 952 € gross, you must depreciate the costs evenly over the normal useful life. In the depreciation tables of the German Federal Ministry of Finance (Abschreibungstabellen für die Absetzung für Abnutzung), the corresponding useful life is specified for each asset. For office furniture, such as a desk, the useful life is 13 years. This means that the operating expenses or income-related expenses must bespread over 13 years and claimed in the tax return. If you deduct the desk tax in this way, you will receive 1/13 of the total costs back from the tax office in Germany each year.

Desk: tax deductible for mixed use

Of course, there's no denying that a plumber only wears his typical boiler suit overalls during working hours and a briefcase is unlikely to be used in his free time. However, many other work equipment purchased for professional reasons is also used in leisure time. In Germany, the tax office refers to this as so-called mixed-use work equipment, i.e. equipment that is used for both professional and private purposes.

The best example of this is a desk. Although it is regularly used in the home office, it is usually also used for writing or handicraft work in leisure time, for example. The tax office therefore initially assumes professional and private use in this case. Is it also possible to deduct tax from the desk in this case? Yes, but the following rules apply:

• The private use must be limited, i.e. of minor importance (less than 10%).
• In the case of 90% business use, the costs of the work equipment are fully deductible.
• If private and business use are distributed differently, the costs can only be reimbursed on a pro rata basis.
• In some cases, you must provide the tax office with proof of the professional use of your desk. You can do this with a "desk logbook", for example: Document your desk use for professional reasons (each with date, time and purpose).

The followingapplies: the more time-intensive the professional use, the less significant the private use. However, the less often the work equipment is used for professional reasons, the more significant private use can be.

Deducting a desk for increased private use

So if you use your desk less than 10% for private reasons, you will most likely be reimbursed the majority of the costs incurred by the tax office. But what about ahigher proportion of private use ? You will not be reimbursed for the total cost of your desk, but the tax office can write off at least a proportion of your business expenses or income-related expenses.

You can also have your desk reclassified as work equipment if you have only used it for private reasons up to now. This way, even if you originally purchased it privately and have only used it in your free time so far, it can still be classified as tax-relevant. This allows you to deduct the desk from your taxes.

Deducting a home office desk from tax

Since the coronavirus pandemic, more and more employers in Germany have been allowing their employees to work from home. Initially, working from home seemed to be a temporary solution to break chains of infection. Today, working from home has become the norm for many employees. What many people don't realize is that the coronavirus pandemic has also had an impact on the tax-deductible work-related expenses in the home office.

Employees can normally claim all costs for furnishings and equipment as work-related expenses in their income tax return. The only requirement is that it must be a self-contained study However, working from home in coronavirus times is an exception: here, employees who do not have their own office can also deduct income-related expenses for their ergonomic office chair and desk.

In Germany, taxpayers were able to claim a home office allowance of 5 € per day for a maximum of 120 days per year in 2020 and 2021 for each day they worked from home. The maximum amount that can be deducted for tax purposes is therefore 600 € per year. But hurry - the deadline for this ends on December 31, 2024.

Tax deductible desk - how does it work now?

So you now know that you can deduct your desk from your taxes. But how do you go about claiming the purchase price as business expenses or income-related expenses in your tax return? All you have to do is carefully fill out the Annex N of your tax return .

You fill out the first page of Annex N with details of your salary - most of which you will find on your income tax statement. On the second page, you can claimall your professional expenses - this way you can also deduct tax on your desk.

Please note: Be sure to keep all invoices and receipts for your purchases in a safe place. This way, you can show the relevant receipts if the tax office asks. If you always keep a good overview of your total expenditure, you will also benefit from tax deductibility.

Deduct your desk from tax and save money

Whether you are self-employed or employed, your professional expenses can be written off in Germany. You can therefore expect to be able to deduct your desk from your taxes - either as part of your business expenses or as income-related expenses. In this way, you will be reimbursed either the majority or at least a proportion of the costs by the German tax office. You should therefore never disregard the tax deductibility of work equipment!