The Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia (TSJA) issued a ruling in which a self-employed couple was allowed to deduct 50% of the supply costs of their home, since they used half of the house as a professional office. The decision of the Andalusian court establishes jurisprudence on what, until now, were not considered deductible expenses and lays the foundations so that the self-employed can deduct household expenses. The experts indicate that it will be in the same percentage of use of the house for the development of the professional activity.
According to Declarando, the online tax advice platform for the self-employed, article 95 of the VAT Law limits the right of the self-employed to deduct VAT from their expenses to those that are 100% related to the activity. The Treasury, the advisers affirm, interpreted that the expenses in bills of light, water, electricity or, among others, internet; They did not apply to 100% of the activity of the self-employed, so they could not deduct VAT from these activities.
The self-employed couple demonstrated both that the invoices of their rental contract were in the name of the tenants, that is, of themselves, and that they used 50% of the house as work space, so they could deduct 50 % of expenses in supplies.
There are housing expenses that, in a similar way to the sentence prepared by the TSJA, can be deducted up to 30% of housing expenses through personal income tax. In other words, a self-employed person who uses 10% of his home for his professional activity, will be able to deduct 30% of the expenses generated by that space in the house (10%) that is used for work.
The Declarando experts indicate that the sentence opens the door for the self-employed to deduct housing expenses. Although, they point out, “in the same percentage of that used to work.” This means, they highlight, that if the self-employed person dedicates 50% of his home to his professional activity and the VAT rate for electricity is 21 euros, you could deduct half of the VAT, about 11.55 euros.
