As an Auszubildender, a trainee, you can deduct your training costs from your tax return. This article tells you how to proceed with the app and which costs you can deduct.

Content

• First or second degree?
• Does an apprenticeship/training count as initial or secondary training?
• Which costs can I deduct?
• How to enter your costs for training in the Taxfix app

First or second degree?

Your tax situation depends to a certain extent on your personal curriculum vitae, because initial and secondary education are treated differently.

• You are in your first education as long as you have not acquired another education or degree between your schooling and your education. In this case, you may deduct a maximum of 6,000 euros of your training costs as special expenses

• If you are in your second education, you may deduct the full amount of your education costs as income-related expenses (Werbungskosten). For negative income, a so-called loss carry-forward is possible - this means that you can take your losses or costs with you into the following year

Does an apprenticeship/training count as initial or secondary training?

A special regulation applies to apprentices:

• If you do a dual training, i.e. earn money in your first training and are in an employment relationship, then you may fully deduct all your training costs from your taxes as income-related expenses. In fact, this is the rule for apprenticeships in Germany

• If, on the other hand, you are in a purely school-based training without being part of a training company, you can only deduct the costs of your training as special expenses

The Taxfix app automatically recognises whether your expenses for the training are deductible as special expenses or as income-related expenses and takes them into account accordingly when calculating your tax. We explain how to enter the costs below.

Which costs can I deduct?

You will have to pay a lot of expenses during your education. These are the most common expenses that you can deduct from your taxes:

• Fees for admission, courses and exams
• Travel costs to the training centre and vocational school
• Costs for a second home at the place of training
• Moving expenses
• Costs for work equipment and learning materials
• Expenses for job applications

How to enter your costs for training in the Taxfix app

In the Taxfix app, enter that you have completed an apprenticeship in the category "Intro questions". If you received income, you can also enter this here.

You can enter your training salary in the "Income" category. Simply enter the data from your annual payslip here.

All other costs that you incurred in the course of your work at the company can be entered in the category "Work".

Finally, you enter expenses that you had at the vocational school within the scope of your training in the category "Education".