Tips for your tax return: How to deduct gardening work from your taxes

What are the requirements?

The garden must belong to a house, in which you liveAccording to the Federal Ministry of Finance, holiday homes and second, holiday or weekend homes in Europe are also eligible for tax relief if your Main residence in Germany is registered. If you rent out the house and do not live in it yourself, you cannot deduct the costs as a craft service or household-related service, but you can deduct them as advertising costs.

Household-related services include common gardening work, such as mowing the lawn. Craft services are one-off jobs, such as repairs or building a terrace.

What can you deduct?

The deductible costs of up to 5,200 euros per year (but a maximum of 20 percent of the total costs) are generally Travel and labor costs In addition, the costs for the Use of machinesfur Dietary supplements (such as cleaning products) and Disposal costs can be deducted from taxes as a secondary service (e.g. garden waste).

However, gardening work that is carried out as part of a new build cannot be deducted. Material costs (such as when buying plants), administrative expenses and disposal costs, if these are the main costs, are also not tax deductible.

How can you deduct the costs?

Deductible expenses should be your best Pay by bank transferThe tax office may request receipts to verify your information and generally prefers the declaration of amounts that have been verifiably debited from your account. For smaller amounts up to 100 euros, however, submitting a receipt is usually sufficient. Basically, you should Material costs separated of the Labor, travel and machine costs and with Recommendations These documents must be kept for at least two years.

We have summarized here everything else you can deduct from your taxes in addition to gardening work.

By the way, this gardening work must be done in March – otherwise you face high fines.