Filing your German taxes soon? Don't leave money on the table for your AI side-quests 💸
If you live and work in Germany, here’s a quick reminder: ChatGPT Plus, Claude, and GitHub Copilot aren't just for prompt tinkering or generating repetitive code. They are your personal R&D lab, 24/7 tech mentor, and sandbox for breaking new frameworks.
And yes-the Finanzamt considers them valid work tools (Arbeitsmittel).
Whether you’re:
Employed (Angestellte): Add them under Werbungskosten (Anlage N) if your total work expenses clear the €1,230 threshold.
Freelancer (Freiberufler): Deduct them directly as Betriebsausgaben from euro one.
Grabbing those invoices from OpenAI, Anthropic, or GitHub takes about two minutes. While mandatory filers face the July 31st deadline, it’s best to get it sorted now either way so the German government can co-sponsor your late-night coding experiments.
Time to pause the LLM debates and send those receipts to the tax office! 💶