The self-employed person will be able to deduct the supplies of his house

• To access the tax benefit, it will be necessary to prove that the deductible consumption serves the economic activity

• The Treasury could put obstacles with the requirement of documentation

The Central Economic Administrative Court has issued a resolution according to which the self-employed who work from home will be able to deduct expenses such as electricity, water, gas or telephone in their personal income tax. This resolution is binding for the Administration and obligatory for Treasury officials.

Until now, the DG of Taxes allowed the self-employed person who works at home to deduct the expenses derived from the ownership of the home as the IBI, the garbage rate or the community of owners fee. The amount of the deduction is fixed based on the square meters of the house that are used to carry out the professional activity. This does not change and remains the same.

However, until now the Tax Agency vetoed this same rule in the case of consumption such as electricity or gas, arguing that it was not "there was a rational rule” to determine what part of the supplies was used for private purposes and what part for professional activity.

TEAC itself recognizes that there is no rational rule that allows "discerning" what part of, for example, electricity consumption is for personal use and what part has a professional purpose. At this point, instead of cutting their losses as the Tax Agency did up to now, the TEAC proposes a third way and defends that a formula be articulated that allows part of the expenses to be deducted. "It could be useful, in your case, a combined criterion of square meters with the working days of the activity and the hours in which said activity is exercised in the property”, indicates the resolution of the TEAC. It also points out that the right to deduct is also conditional on the taxpayer proving that the consumption subject to deduction has a use for professional activity.

Given these conditions suggested by the TEAC, it is probable that the Treasury will issue an internal instruction so that officials know how to act from now on; meanwhile , who should be attentive to see exactly what means of proof is used in the eyes of the Treasury to deduct the supplies or which generate problems will be the taxpayers and tax advisers .

If you need more information you can contact our experts, through the contact or at our offices (968 45 46 24), which will advise you on what is best for you so as not to have problems with the treasury.