This guide will walk you through how to correctly handle your vehicle for tax purposes in four steps.
Decide whether it’s a private or business vehicle
Private vehicle
Business vehicle
Commercial vehicle
You drive a regular passenger car
🔍 1. First, decide whether it is a private or business car
First, you need to determine whether your vehicle is considered private or business-related. The table below will help you decide:
How many kilometers do you drive for business | Your car is | What can you deduct? |
< 10% | Private | Commuting allowance (if applicable) + mileage allowance |
10% - 50% | You decide | Depends on your choice (commuting + mileage OR logbook) |
> 50% | Business asset | Actual costs (1% rule) OR proportional costs (logbook method) |
Use our online tool to estimate how much you can deduct and which method is the most optimized for you.
🏠 2. If your vehicle is considered "private"
If your car is private, you can deduct the following:
Commuting allowance
Mileage allowance
Since you cover all other costs privately, no deemed private use (income) needs to be recorded.
Commuting allowance (one-way)
You can deduct €0.38 per one-way kilometer between your home and workplace.
How to record this in Accountable:
Go to “Expenses”
Click the three dots next to “Upload expense”
Select “Create an expense manually”
Fill in:
Category: Business useage of a private car
Trip type: Drive to your office (Pendlerpauschale)
Distance (one way)
Number of working days
The system calculates the deductible amount automatically.
👉 Max deduction: €4,500/year
Mileage allowance (actually driven kilometers)
For business trips with your private car, you can deduct:
€0.30 per km (car)
€0.20 (motorcycle)
€0.05 (bike)
Important:
Each trip must be documented individually (or tracked in a log/Excel file).
Best is to make a note of the kilometers driven and the customer or reason for the trip and the time/date immediately afterward.
To do this:
Go to the expense screen
Click on the three dots next to "create expense" and choose "create an expense manually"
Fill out the form by
choosing the category "car private use"
choosing the destination "business trip (Kilometergeld)"
encoding the type of vehicle
encoding the total kilometers (both ways)
The system will now automatically calculate the deductible amount. All you have to do now is save the expense.
💼 3. If your vehicle is considered "business"
If your vehicle is classified as a business asset, you can deduct costs fully or partially.
However, you must account for private usage by recording a
👉 deemed private use (income)
(a notional income that reflects private use and must be taxed)
You can choose between:
1% rule
Logbook method
📊 1% rule
If you choose the 1% rule:
You deduct 100% of all vehicle costs (fuel, repairs, insurance, etc.)
In return, you must declare 1% of the gross list price per month as deemed private use (income)
⚡ Reduced rates for electric & hybrid vehicles
Depending on the vehicle, reduced rates apply:
Fully electric vehicles (no CO₂ emissions)
Purchased from 01.07.2025:
≤ €100,000 → 0.25%
€100,000 → 0.5%
Purchased 01.01.2024 – 30.06.2025:
≤ €70,000 → 0.25%
€70,000 → 0.5%
Purchased before 01.01.2024:
≤ €60,000 → 0.25%
€60,000 → 0.5%
Hybrid vehicles
2025–2030:
≤ 50g CO₂/km OR ≥ 80 km electric range → 0.5%
2022–2024:
≤ 50g CO₂/km OR ≥ 60 km range → 0.5%
2019–2021:
≤ 50g CO₂/km OR ≥ 40 km range → 0.5%
💰 VAT treatment
If you are VAT-registered:
You must pay 19% VAT on 80% of the 1% value
This rule applies regardless of electric/hybrid reductions
If you are not VAT-registered:
No VAT is due on the deemed private use (income)
Expenses: In the app, you can simply enter all your costs for your car with 100% business use. Please use the category "business car usage".
Enter deemed private use as revenue:
1. To encode the revenue, please go to your settings -> cars and encode your car first:
2. Click on "add a car"
3. Encode "name", "list price" and "fuel type" and click on save.
4. For electric vehicles: Add the acquisition date of your vehicle
5. Click on "encode private usage"
6. A new ticket will open up. Everything will be filled out automatically based on the car data you encoded. All you have to do is encode the usage time. ⚠️ Please always encode only one month here.
7. Click "save" to record this revenue. The taxable income is computed in accordance with the 1% rule for private usage of a business car. (Meaning 80% of the revenue will be calculated plus 19% VAT and the remaining 20% will be with 0% VAT, if you are subject to VAT.)
You can now find your revenue listed right here in the revenue screen:
⚠️ Important:
This entry should be recorded monthly
Quarterly/yearly only if VAT reporting allows it
📘 Logbook method
If you choose the logbook method, you must record all trips in a way that they cannot be modified later (e.g. using a digital logbook).
Each trip must be documented in detail and include:
Date
Time
Destination
Purpose of the trip / business partner
Mileage at the start of the trip
Mileage at the end of the trip
Any unavoidable detours (if applicable)
💸 Expenses
In the app, you can enter all your car-related expenses.
For the business use field, estimate your business usage percentage for the year (based on total kilometers driven over the year before or simply input an estimate).
Use the same percentage consistently throughout the year.
At year-end, you can adjust this percentage based on the actual usage when preparing your VAT return and income statement (EÜR).
🔁 Alternative: Adjustment via deemed private use (income)
If you have already recorded many expenses, you can adjust the private share via a:
👉 deemed private use (income) (notional income)
🧮 Example
You estimated:
80% business use
But the actual usage is:
75%
→ The 5% difference must be recorded as deemed private use (income).
👉 Use the category “Other income”
⚠️ Important:
Book 80% with VAT (if you are VAT-registered)
Book 20% without VAT
The calculation is based on total vehicle costs
🏠 Commuting to your workplace
For trips to your regular workplace, you can deduct:
👉 €0.38 per kilometer (one-way distance)
If you use a private vehicle, this works as explained earlier.
If you use a business vehicle, the same limit applies:
You can only deduct up to €0.38 per one-way kilometer
If your actual costs are higher, you must increase your deemed private use (income) accordingly
🚐 Got a utility vehicle?
Your vehicle is considered a utility vehicle if field J of your registration certificate is marked with an N or M.
This usually includes transporters, vans, and pick-ups.
Not sure? Just ask our tax coaches directly in the app.
If used 100% for business, you can deduct:
Purchase costs (amortization over normally 6 years)
Leasing
Insurance
Fuel
Repairs, etc.
👉 Simply record all expenses as 100% professional use
No deemed private use (income) required if classified as a utility vehicle.
You can use our Online Spreadsheet tool to get an estimate of how much you can deduct, as well as a calculation of the best way to deduct your car expenses.
That's it, you're ready to deduct your professional car expenses.
Still have questions, or not sure how to do it? Contact us at support@accountable.eu