The German Ministry of Finance wants to introduce a new flat-rate tax for the occasional use of e-scooters, e-bikes, car-sharing offers and driving services. This is intended to better promote the mobility budget and alternatives for employee mobility.
Employers are to be given more opportunities to promote the mobility of their employees in a tax-privileged manner beyond company cars, company bikes and job tickets. The Federal Ministry of Finance refers to this as a mobility budget. A corresponding regulation is included in the current draft of the annual tax law, as reported by Handelsblatt, among others.
The state-subsidized mobility budget is supposed to work like this: The employer finances the use of e-scooters, e-bikes, car sharing and other sharing offers. The associated non-cash benefit for employees up to EUR 2,400 per year is taxed at a special rate of 25 percent. The tax relief will only apply if employers grant the mobility budget in addition to the regular salary.
Up to now, similar tax benefits have been only available for the use of company cars, company bikes or job tickets for local public transport. With the mobility budget, these options are now to be expanded to include new forms of mobility such as sharing offers. The draft bill states: "This gives employers the opportunity to provide their employees with a wide range of mobility options and to supplement existing offers in a purpose-oriented manner."
If employers currently want to financially support new forms of mobility such as car sharing and e-scooters, they have a tax-free limit of 50 euros via the so-called non-cash benefit. In addition, there is a flat-rate tax of 30 percent with a maximum limit of 10,000 euros per year. However, this tax regulation can be used for various company employee benefits. The currently planned tax benefits are intended to specifically promote employee mobility and, in particular, "expand the existing incentives to promote mobility that is as environmentally friendly as possible".
"The option of lump-sum taxation will enable low-bureaucracy taxation and overcome application hurdles and reservations," the draft bill states.
Technical adjustments to tax law and simplifications are regularly made in so-called annual tax laws. The Ministry of Finance's current draft is 240 pages long and contains around 100 new regulations in addition to the mobility budget, including relief for hobby brewers. In future, anyone who brews their own beer at home will be able to do so tax-free up to a volume of 500 liters. Previously, the limit was 200 liters. The aim of the new regulation is to reduce the bureaucratic burden for everyone involved.
