Deadline Approaching: Take Advantage of Tax Deductible Insurance Before It’s Too Late!

– Attention: The deadline for filing the 2022 tax return is ending soon! This allows you to take advantage of tax advantages and declare deductible insurance.

Health, household contents or accident insurance: They make up a significant portion of annual expenses. But: there are ways to claim some of these costs in your tax return – but the deadline for filing them is at the end of September. Since September 30th is a Saturday, the deadline has been exceptionally extended to October 2nd.

Depending on the type of insurance and your individual situation, you can deduct these in different categories. As (retirement) pension expenses, part of special expenses or as advertising expenses. In order to be able to deduct the insurance, it doesn’t matter whether the tax return is filled out using software, with the ELSTER program – or on paper.

These insurances are deductible – a rule of thumb:

When it comes to the question of which insurance policies are deductible, the following rule applies: The legislator defines lifestyle costs that unavoidably reduce economic performance as special expenses – and for this reason they receive tax advantages and are deductible. However, pure property insurance, which can be avoided, is not deductible: it neither serves as precautionary measures nor is it necessary for the exercise of the profession. Precautionary expenses must be deducted – which can be roughly divided into retirement provision and general provision.

Retirement insurance

Retirement insurance includes statutory pension insurance, professional pension funds or agricultural age groups as well as private pension insurance (Rürup contracts). But be careful: Pay attention to the maximum amounts for retirement provision expenses – they are set as follows: In the tax year 2022, the maximum limit is 25,639 euros for single people and 51,278 euros for married couples or registered life partners.

Further pension insurance

The Riester contributions up to a maximum of 2,100 euros can also be deducted as special expenses, according to the “Vergleiche Lohnsteuerhilfe eV”. This includes not only the contributions that you pay yourself, but also the state allowance. According to Signal Iduna, the following insurance policies are also deductible:

Private insurance: health and nursing care insurance, accident insurance, unemployment insurance, employment and occupational disability insurance, pension insurance, private liability insurance, private international health insurance, term life insurance.

Professional insurance: professional liability insurance, accident insurance, parts of legal protection insurance, parts of motor vehicle insurance, professional international health insurance.

This insurance is not deductible

According to the “Vergleiche Lohnsteuerhilfe eV”, private, rental legal protection, traffic legal protection insurance as well as household contents, motor vehicle comprehensive insurance, private pensions (investment products) and capital life insurance are not deductible. In addition, luggage, cell phone or bicycle insurance – which are also not intended for precautionary purposes – are also not deductible.

This is where you specify the insurance in your tax return

The following applies to employees: Contributions for work-related insurance are recorded as business expenses in Appendix N (income from non-self-employed work) of their tax return. For the self-employed, the following applies: These expenses are recorded in the EÜR (revenue surplus statement) as operating costs.

The contributions paid are included in Appendix AV, as most of these are deductible as special expenses. Contributions to the Riester pension can also be found here. The data is on the certificate from the Riester provider, which you usually receive at the beginning of the year. According to “Taxfix”, the special expense deduction amounts to a maximum of 2,100 euros.