Investitionsabzugsbetrag

The Investitionsabzugsbetrag is a timing mechanism. A business that intends to buy a piece of equipment may deduct part of the expected cost in a year before the purchase happens, which reduces the taxable result of that earlier year. When the equipment is then bought, the amount already deducted is added back and the remaining cost is written down in the ordinary way described under Abschreibung auf Medizintechnik. Nothing is gained or lost overall, because only the timing of the tax effect changes.

Whether it is available at all depends on the business rather than on the device. There is a size limit expressed through the result of the business, and the test is framed differently for a pharmacy filing a full Bilanz and one working with a simpler income statement. The conditions on the equipment itself are these:

• The equipment has to be movable rather than part of the building.
• It has to be used in the business itself.
• It has to meet a minimum degree of business use.

Every one of those tests is written in figures that the legislator reviews, which is why none of them is quoted here.

The follow through is the part that goes wrong most often. The deduction is provisional, so if the investment is not made within the permitted window, or the item bought is not the kind of item claimed for, the deduction is reversed in the original year. That year has usually been assessed already, so the reversal comes with interest on the tax that was deferred, which makes a plan that was never carried out more expensive than never having claimed at all. Deciding to use this mechanism depends on the size of the business, on the bookkeeping and on the reliability of the investment plan, so it belongs with the Steuerberater before anything is ordered.

For a pharmacy the question is usually raised in a good year, when a laboratory device or a fitted consultation area is being considered for the year after. The question that decides it is not the tax saving but whether the equipment will be bought regardless, which depends on the expected appointment volume and the Amortisationsdauer rather than on the tax position. A deduction taken against a purchase that only exists because of the deduction is a poor reason to spend.

The mechanism works on the result, so it interacts with everything else that shapes the Betriebsergebnis. It says nothing about input tax, which follows its own rules and is dealt with under Vorsteueraufteilung bei gemischten Umsätzen.