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Anyone who wants to secure money from the tax office in good time at the turn of the year should keep an eye on deadlines and new rules for employee tax assessment. This is pointed out by the tax consulting company BDO.
For the 2025 assessment year, extended benefits for teleworking apply, and the five-year period for the 2020 assessment expires on December 31, 2025.
Home office becomes location-independent teleworking
A new development is that the previous home office is being expanded to include location-independent teleworking. This means that working days in a coffee shop or co-working space, for example, can also be included. Employers can continue to pay a tax-free teleworking allowance of up to €300 per year, with a maximum of €3 per day for a maximum of 100 teleworking days.
If the allowance remains below €3 per day, the difference is automatically taken into account as income-related expenses – but only if no tax-recognized home office is claimed. The number of teleworking days and the amount of the allowance are taken from the payslip and do not need to be entered separately in the tax assessment.
Ergonomic furniture is only for the workplace at home
In 2025, costs for ergonomic furniture—such as office chairs or desks—can only be deducted up to €300 for a workplace set up in the home. The prerequisite is at least 26 teleworking days per year. Expenses for 2025 must be declared in full. If the amount exceeds €300, the remainder will automatically be carried forward to 2026, provided that at least 26 days of teleworking are completed again in that year. Any excess amounts from 2024 may no longer be entered separately in 2025, as they have already been automatically carried forward.
What can be claimed as an expense?
An employee tax assessment can be made up within five years, so for 2020, the deadline is December 31, 2025. An evaluation is particularly worthwhile if someone was temporarily unemployed or incurred higher deductible costs.
Income-related expenses such as training, education, and retraining costs, special expenses such as certain donations, voluntary continued pension insurance, or tax consulting costs, as well as extraordinary expenses, are deductible. These include, for example, medical expenses above the deductible, costs resulting from disabilities, disaster damage, or expenses for children’s vocational training away from home. In addition, various deductions—such as maintenance deductions or family bonus plus—can be claimed.
According to BDO expert Julia Mäder, it is important to note that these expenses must actually be paid by December 31, 2025, in order to be taken into account in the 2025 employee tax assessment.
When is an assessment mandatory?
A mandatory employee tax assessment is required if the taxable annual income in 2025 exceeds €14,448 and additional income of more than €730 has been earned. Anyone who has at least two income sources subject to income tax at the same time during the calendar year must also submit a tax assessment.
Tax assessment is also mandatory if, in 2025, more than €1,000 in employee bonuses or a total of more than €3,000 in tax-free employee bonuses and profit-sharing payments – for example, from several employers – have been received.
Automatic credit through assessment without application
If taxpayers do not submit an employee tax assessment for the previous year by June 30 and have only earned income subject to income tax, the tax office will carry out a so-called employee tax assessment without application. After two years, any excess income tax withheld will be automatically refunded, provided that no voluntary evaluation has been made by then. For the year 2023, this means by December 31, 2025. This also applies in cases where a mandatory assessment would actually have been necessary.
- source: kurier.at/picture: Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay
