As part of the special expenses, taxpayers can claim certain costs, in particular insurance contributions. The legislature makes it directly clear in § 10 (1) sentence 1 of the Income Tax Act (EStG) that the expenses must be neither operating expenses nor advertising costs. Special expenses therefore do not reduce certain income, but have a direct impact on the taxable income.
According to §§ 10, the special expenses include the following EStG expenses, which the legislature would like to tax, but which at the same time cannot be assigned to any particular type of income. Because according to the principle of subsidiarity, they always record income and expenses in such a way that they are as close as possible to their “origin”. Contributions for occupational liability insurance are not special, but operating expenses.
Relevant in practice are in particular the following special expenses, regulated in § 10 (1) no. 2 to 9 EStG:
This article does not replace tax or legal advice in an individual case. Facts, current law, jurisdiction, documentation and implementation remain decisive.