Hi,
Planning to buy a Laptop.Can I claim the amount spent for it during my tax declaration.Do I get back the total amount?What r the conditions for the claim.

Cheers

If it is for Official purpose you can claim some(on 16% tax u have payed) tax returns.. but not the entire cost of your laptop!

VSK

Well, It depends. If you can convince your tax office that you need it for work (for example, you can show a certificate from your company that you need it for your 'weiterbildung", or you work at home occasionally) then you can deduce it completely if it costs less than a certain limit (400 €, I believe). If it costs more, then you have to deduct it over a 3 year period using a depreciation table (Absetzungen für Abnutzungen http://www.steuernetz.de/afa/tabellen/index.html).

And, starting 2004, you have to deduct it exactly to the month,
so if you buy it now, you could deduct 7*(Price/(3*12)) for this year, Price/3 for the next year, Price/3 for the following year, and 5*(Price/(3*12)) for the remainder.

Cheers,
Alex