VIDEO: Tax deductible cleaning costs

As a male bank employee, you wear a suit in the bank. As a craftsman, the overalls are your work clothes. Even with a job in a kitchen, they are not complete without suitable clothing. In some jobs, the right clothing is simply part of the job. But you cannot deduct all work clothing from tax.

Typical work clothing can be claimed in the tax return

• You can only claim certain typical work clothing for your tax return. Here the banker's suit is an example of non-typical workwear. Because as a banker you cannot take off your suit because you can wear a jacket (man) or suit (woman) in your private life. It cannot be used to establish a connection with your job.
• The situation is different if work clothes are prescribed for personal protection or for hygienic reasons. Typical examples of such work clothing are overalls, work shoes (steel toe shoes), clothing in medical professions, the gown of a pastor and the robe of a lawyer. Uniforms are also counted as workwear. They identify the wearer and indicate their rank.
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• Even clothes that were specially made by a company for the employees taking into account the corporate design is used to identify the employee with the company and is therefore considered to be Working clothes.
• Tax legislation stipulates that expenses related to real work clothing are tax deductible. This also includes cleaning costs.


Deduct workwear for tax purposes - this is how it works

Both self-employed and employees can deduct work clothing from tax. …

• However, you are not allowed to wear work clothing privately. In 2010, for example, the Rhineland-Palatinate Finance Court ruled that a chef can take off a chef's jacket and hat. It is recognized here that he only wears them at work. For normal white trousers under the jacket and the white socks, cleaning costs are not to be taken into account.

So you can deduct the cleaning costs from the tax

• As an employee, you are entitled to the increased expenses for the purchase and deduct the cleaning of work clothing as business expenses from the tax.
• You can easily determine the washing costs. If you give uniforms to a laundry or dry cleaner, all you need to do is keep the relevant receipts.
• If you wash your clothes in the washing machine at home, it is a little more difficult. However, the tax offices are not allowed to refuse you recognition. You can claim washing, drying and ironing expenses. You can expect a reimbursement of costs of around 0.77 to 0.88 euros per wash cycle and kilogram when washing in your own washing machine.

If that is too complicated for you, claim the purchase and cleaning in the amount of 110 euros in your tax return as income-related expenses. Usually that requires Tax office then not even receipts from you.