As many gardeners know, gardening can take a lot of time. For example, there are sowing, watering, fertilizing, protecting against temperature fluctuations and voracious insects and many other steps between the seed and the harvest – over several months.
There are also other tasks, such as trimming hedges and trees or mowing the lawn. And in addition to the work, there are also all kinds of costs. Planting a tree, for example, can cost up to several thousand euros.
However, if the work is successful, you can expect a magnificent garden and a productive harvest. And some of your costs and efforts are tax deductible.
You must take note of this
What are the requirements?
The garden must belong to a house, where you live yourself. According to the Federal Ministry of Finance, holiday homes and second homes, holiday homes or weekend homes in Europe are also eligible if you Main residence in Germany is reported. If you rent out the house and do not live in it yourself, you cannot deduct the costs as trades or household-related services, but you can deduct them as income-related expenses.
Household services are also understood to mean normal garden work, such as mowing the lawn. Craftsmanship services are one-time jobs, such as repairs or the construction of a terrace.
What can you deduct?
In addition to the deductible costs of up to 5,200 euros per year (but no more than 20 percent of the total costs), the travel and labor costs counted. In addition, the cost of use of machinesfor consumables (such as detergents) and disposal costs as an ancillary service (e.g. garden waste) can be deducted from taxes.
However, gardening work that occurs in the course of a new building cannot be deducted. Material costs (such as the purchase of plants), administrative expenses, disposal costs, if these are in the foreground, are not tax deductible.
How can you deduct the costs?
Deductible expenses should be your best bet pay by bank transfer. The tax office may request receipts to verify your information and generally prefers amounts that can be proven to have been debited from your account. For smaller amounts of up to 100 euros, however, it is usually sufficient to submit a receipt. Basically you should material costs separately of the Labour, travel and machine costs and with included VAT information Submit. These documents must be kept for at least two years.
We have summarized here what you can deduct from your taxes in addition to gardening.
Incidentally, this gardening work must be done in March – otherwise you risk high fines.