If you don't want to do the gardening yourself, you can hire a service provider to do it. The costs are tax deductible.
You certainly enjoy gardening and you prefer to do most of it yourself. However, there are some jobs around the house that are difficult or impossible to do yourself. This includes, for example, paving the driveway, laying decking boards or pruning tall trees.
If you hire a service provider for these and other tasks in the garden, you can also save on taxes. We'll show you how.
3 tips: How to save taxes in the garden
» Tip 1: Deduct craftsman services
If you pave your garden paths or have a hole dug for a pool or swimming pond on your property, you can state this handyman service in your tax return (see § 35a EStG).
It doesn't matter whether you want to create a new garden or redesign an area.
➜ The following requirements must be met:
- The house on the property must be occupied by the owner himself.
- The house must NOT be a new building.
- Tax deductibility is tied to a household.
You can also deduct tradesman services for a holiday home or an allotment garden shed that you do not live in all year round. This also applies to houses and apartments in other European countries.
➜ You can estimate these costs:
- The actual performance
- The service provider's journey
- The consumables (e.g. detergent, road s alt)
- Use of devices
For all tradesman services, 20 percent of the costs or a maximum of 1,200 euros per year are tax deductible. The experts from Finanztipp point out that the corresponding invoices from the service providers must be submitted to the tax office. It is also important that you do not pay the service provider in cash, but transfer the amount. The respective receipts such as bank statements or transfer slips must also be available to the tax office.You must enter the sum of the craftsman services provided in the entire year in the tax return in the cover sheet on page 3 in line 73. To make this work easier and to use other practical tips for tax savings, tax software is recommended. The Lexware program, for example, makes it easy to get started with intuitive and fast menu navigation. You will be guided step by step through the tax return, you can immediately check your data entry and finally send your data directly to ELSTER.
» Note: When you receive the invoice, it is best to make sure that the service provision (labor, travel and machine use) and the material that the service provider has delivered are listed separately. You cannot deduct the material costs from your taxes.
» Tip 2: Household-related services and Co.
You can also include household-related services as expenses in your tax return up to a maximum of 4,000 euros. This includes all activities that you could do yourself but hire a service provider to do. The prerequisite is: The household-related service actually takes place at your home.
➜ Examples:
- A company regularly mows your property.
- A caretaker takes care of sweeping and clearing paths.
- A gardener trims your hedges in spring.
» Note: If your children help you with gardening, you can only deduct financial rewards from your taxes under certain circumstances. This is possible if your children no longer live in the same household. In addition, a legally binding contract must be signed and the agreed work must actually have been performed.
» Tip 3: Benefit as a tenant
If you live in a house or an apartment with a garden for rent, it is also possible to use these tax savings. The decisive factor here is that you either bear the costs for the services provided in the garden yourself or are involved in them, document them precisely and prove them to the tax office. In this case, too, 20 percent of the expenses actually incurred or up to 1,200 euros per year are recognized. The landlord cannot deduct the costs in this way because he does not live in the house or apartment himself. However, he can set the expenses incurred for the garden design or maintenance as income-related expenses for the acquisition of leases and rents.