Entwurf für das Jahressteuergesetz 2024

Im Regierungsentwurf für das Jahressteuergesetz 2024 sind zahlreiche Detailänderungen enthalten, wovon vor allem einige Änderungen bei der Umsatzsteuer Folgen für die meisten Unternehmer haben werden.

Im vergangenen Jahr gab es kein offizielles Jahressteuergesetz, denn dessen Funktion hatte das Wachstumschancengesetz übernommen. Kaum ist dieses nach langen Geburtswehen in Kraft getreten, legt das Bundesfinanzministerium auch schon den Entwurf für das Jahressteuergesetz 2024 vor. Darin sind im Gegensatz zu dessen Vorgängern bis jetzt nur wenige wirklich erhebliche Änderungen im Steuerrecht enthalten, was nicht zuletzt daran liegt, dass dem Fiskus für Gestaltungen oder Steuerentlastungen derzeit das Geld fehlt.

The ministry has planned the most far-reaching changes to VAT, but has so far deliberately concealed these in its own summary of the measures to be highlighted in the draft bill. Instead, the ministry highlights other adjustments to EU requirements, reactions to the case law of the Federal Fiscal Court and the Federal Constitutional Court as well as other detailed changes.

The draft will now go through the usual legislative process. It is not expected to be passed until late fall, and a number of other points are likely to be included in the law before then. You can read about the key changes already planned in the following overview.

• Small business regulation: Due to EU requirements, the small business regulation in VAT law is being reformed, which will lead to two significant changes in addition to various detailed changes. On the one hand, until now only entrepreneurs based in Germany have been able to make use of the small business regulation. From 2025, however, the regulation will also be open to companies based in other EU member states. A special reporting procedure will be introduced for this purpose.

  

  In addition, the specifications for the amount limits will be adjusted, which will affect all users of the small business regulation. Until now, the regulation could be used if the previous year's turnover did not exceed 22,000 euros and turnover in the current year is not expected to exceed 50,000 euros. The limit for the previous year's turnover will be raised to 25,000 euros from 2025. According to the new EU regulations, the forecast threshold for turnover in the current year, which previously only had consequences in the following year if it was exceeded without planning, is no longer permitted. From 2025, a hard turnover threshold of EUR 100,000 will therefore apply for the current year (i.e. double the previous forecast threshold, which makes the changeover less painful), above which the small business regulation will no longer apply immediately. Even the turnover that exceeds this limit is subject to standard taxation. For start-ups, a lower turnover threshold of 25,000 euros applies in the first year.

• Actual taxation: A change in the area of actual taxation, which also has an impact on all debit taxable persons, is also based on EU law. Previously, the receipt of a correct invoice was sufficient for input tax deduction in the case of debit taxation. However, EU law stipulates that the right to deduct input VAT arises at the same time as the tax office's tax claim against the invoice issuer, which is not the case for actual taxable persons until the invoice is paid. A ruling by the European Court of Justice means that this requirement is also implemented more strictly in German law.

  From 2026, actual taxable persons will therefore have to include the new mandatory statement "Taxation according to received remuneration" in their invoices. In such cases, from 2026, the invoice recipient may only claim the input tax deduction once they have not only received the invoice but also paid it. At the same time, actual taxation will become a competitive disadvantage because debit taxable persons could decide to no longer purchase goods or services from an actual taxable person in order to avoid the expense associated with posting and monitoring different input tax deduction entitlements. Debit taxable persons who are already planning to purchase new software or make changes to their bookkeeping by the end of 2025 due to the e-invoicing obligation should therefore also ensure that the invoice-dependent differentiation of the input tax deduction date is guaranteed from 2026.

• Mobility budget: In future, employers will be able to tax benefits in kind or allowances for their employees from a mobility budget of up to EUR 2,400 per year at a flat rate of 25 %, provided that the mobility budget is granted in addition to the wages already owed. The mobility budget can be used for off-duty mobility services regardless of the means of transport (with the exception of air travel and private motor vehicles or company cars), i.e. in particular also for modern services such as e-scooters, car and bike sharing or other sharing services. The use itself is eligible, but not the reimbursement of pure individual costs (e.g. fuel cards or repair services).

• Health insurance bonus benefits: Contribution refunds by the health insurance company reduce the health insurance contributions that can be deducted as special expenses. Bonus payments from the health insurance company for health-conscious behavior, on the other hand, count as a benefit from the health insurance company instead of a contribution reimbursement due to a simplification regulation by the tax authorities up to an amount of 150 euros per year and therefore do not reduce the special expense deduction. This regulation is currently limited until the end of 2024, but has proven its worth and will therefore be enshrined in law from 2025.

• Law enforcement: In future, in the case of wrongfully obtained benefits from public funds, granting authorities may also forward data subject to tax secrecy that they have previously received from the tax office to the prosecution authorities.

• Farmers and foresters: To mitigate income losses due to climate change, farmers and foresters are entitled to a reduction in income tax rates under certain conditions, which leads to progression smoothing within a three-year period. The last such three-year period ended in 2022. As the situation in agriculture and forestry has not improved, the rate reduction will be extended for two further three-year periods until the end of 2028.

• Flat-rate farmers: In accordance with the requirements of EU law, the average rate and the input tax flat rate for flat-rate farmers are now adjusted annually. A reduction from 9.0 % to 8.4 % was originally planned for 2024 with the Growth Opportunities Act, but this had to be canceled due to the lengthy legislative process. The tax authorities have learned from this bad experience, and so the reduction to 8.4 % is now being made up for and a legally standardized calculation procedure will be introduced from 2026, which will allow the Federal Ministry of Finance to announce the average rate annually for the following year without the need to amend the law.