Freelancers teachers working from home

Are there any freelance teachers out there who must supply your own material and must grade your test papers at home?

If so, by using your home computer for your profession are you not entitled here to deduct a portion of your rent, lights, heat, gas or whatever your "home" bills are from your taxes each year?

You need to have a separate room that serves no other purpose but your work. You can then claim that share of floor space as a business expense, that means if your office takes up half the space in your house you can claim half the rent, same goes for heating etc. I would claim 100% of the equipment you use, your computer etc, you can also claim a share of your phone bill.

The computer is tax deductible if you use it for work but you can't claim it all in one year, you have to depreciate it over a number of years.

Keep receipts for everything.

Up to 2006:
The center of a teachers work is never home, but school. Therefor even if you have a work room, you cant subtract all the costs. If you could prove that more than 50% of your work is done in this room or that there is no other place to do your work (you school doesnt offer any workplace), you could deduct up to 1250€.

From 2007 on:
As the center of a teachers work is never home, but school, you cant deduct anything anymore.

You could try anyway. Maybe you are lucky and the clerk at the "Finanzamt" doesnt know what he is doing.

What about teachers/freelancers who teach at say, iB? They have no space designated and actually have to take work home.

As long as you teach in a classroom, your center of work is not home, says the ministry of finance. The law only mentions "Mittelpunkt der gesamten betrieblichen und beruflichen Betätigung" (what I translated as center of work). Everything else is the authorities interpretation of the law. So you can always start to argue with them. Present your case in your income tax declaration, provide evidence... see what happens.

Btw I have no idea what iB is.

Oh, iB stands for Internationaler Bund (where people are sent for 'umschulung' should they become unfit to do the jobs that they had been doing due to an accident or illness or whatever). I did a stint at the iB a few years back and I had no place to sit in the staff room , leave alone work from. The iB employs a number of freelancers as teachers for various subjects. If this is what the law says, then they should also make it mandatory for schools such as the iB to provide a proper desk for freelancers. I am glad not to have anything to do with the iB but thanks for the info.

Freising, I don't know where you are quoting from, but I claimed for 7 years on work stuff at home as a teacher. Always fully accepted.

§ 4 Abs. 5 Nr. 6b EStG n. F. i. V. m. § 9 Abs. 5 EStG n. F. and BMF, 3.4.2007, IV B 2 - S 2145/07/0002
laws change constantly

I dont know when you worked as a teacher and if you got back more than 1250€ for your work room.
There is always the possibility that they accepted your claim the first year (correctly or not) and then out of laziness didnt check again in the following years. Happens a lot. The only time they realize or admit they made a mistake is, when a new clerk takes over your case.

EDIT: I was just talking about the costs for a work room (portion of rent, lights, heat, gas) - equipment (like computers, office supply, a desk, a chair) is something else...

Ah, okay, that's a big difference. I don't know if the work room was more than 1200 a year or not. Equipment certainly was.

I would suggest (and have evidence for) that a freelance teacher might be treated differently if they can show that their schooling contracts do not allow them time or space within the school to prepare or manage their teaching. At the end of the day it comes down to persuading (and proving) to the Finanzamt that the room space (and associated furnishings and equipment) was a requirement for the execution of your work and is not used for any other purpose. This usually means a dedicated and separate room in your home used exclusively for this purpose.