German Company Taxes

Funding from tax

Many taxpayers, including independent ones, regularly ask themselves whether they can impose fines for tax purposes. As beautiful as it would be for some of us, it is nevertheless not possible.

Fines cannot be deducted from the tax either for business purposes or for business purposes or for private reasons. There are also numerous judgments confirming this approach by the financial authorities.
However, as always, there is the much-cited exception to the rule in this case, so that under certain circumstances you can still impose fines and other penalties in your tax return.

Fines from foreign courts are tax deductible

If you are convicted by a court abroad (no in EU countries) then this is exempted from the above-mentioned ban on deduction and you may take into account your tax return. This also includes compensatory payments which are imposed on you by a criminal court for compensation for damage caused by you. This is a compensation for the injured party, which cannot be compared with a fine. Only penalty-sanctioned penalties are apply to the deduction prohibition, which do not constitute reparation for a possible injured party. Since these legal matters must also contain legal knowledge in order to correctly assess the situation and not to make mistakes when completing the tax declaration, it is advisable to have professional advice before making these entries. A tax advisor's association or a tax consultant, but also lawyers specialized in tax law can tell you exactly whether or not you are entitled to impose a fine or a penalty for tax reduction purposes. If you find that you are allowed to charge such a charge, then you can register it as an advertising fee on the asset N for your tax return if you are an employee. As a self-employed person, you either enter the payment for the operating expenses of the EÜR facility or take account of this by means of an appropriate account posting in the balance sheet. Also for the right entry you can use professional help in case of doubts.

Low-value assets

Called absorbed low-value assets or operating assets with an acquisition cost does not exceed the limit of 410 EUR excluding VAT. These goods can be fully depreciated directly in the year of purchase, even if they were bought in December, for example. They are to be stated in the tax declaration on the EÜR facility under the item Depreciation for low-value assets. In addition, low-value assets with a purchase cost of more than EUR 150 without value added tax must be recorded in an ongoing inventory. The purchase of low-value assets is a tax-deductible factor, since the depreciation on this reduces the profit.

Pool depreciation as an alternative to immediate depreciation

If you do not want to depreciate low-value assets immediately, but use the resulting tax advantages for several years, you have the option of the so-called pool depreciation. In this case, you pool a low-value company (GWG) with a value of EUR 150.01 to EUR 1,000 in a pool and depreciate a total of 5 years at 20 percent of the cumulative value. However, this right to choose between immediate depreciation and pool depreciation is only available to traders.

Depreciation of GWG for employees, savers and landlords

Employees and savers as well as landlords can depreciate the GWG. These include in this case the advertising costs, for example, if you buy a computer for your home office. On your tax return you need to collect on the plant N under "Expenses for a home office" the acquisition of these GWG therefore. If the value of the asset exceeds the limit of 410 euros, you must also make an amortization based on the official tables.

Tax advantages through GWG

Especially for traders, GWG is a good way to save taxes. Especially at the end of a year, if you find that your profit is too high, you can still reduce this by the targeted acquisition of GWG to legally reduce the resulting tax burden due to your tax declaration. Obviously, you should not buy anything for which your company has no use. If, however, any necessary renovations are in the house, you can hit two birds with one stone in this case and renew your operating equipment as well as save on your taxes.