Woman with handbags (symbolic image): Fashion bloggers receive goods from companies, but also buy products themselves
Photo:
Phamai Techaphan/Getty Images
An influencer has failed in court to claim expenses for her clothing and accessories as business expenses.
When it comes to ordinary bourgeois clothing and fashion accessories, a separation between private and business is not possible, said the Lower Saxony tax court in Hanover.
The mere possibility of private use precludes tax consideration, it was said.
The items of clothing are also not typical work clothing.
The decision dates back to November, but it has now been featured prominently in the court's newsletter.
The court found in the case that the profession of influencer or blogger should not be assessed differently than other professions.
It is therefore irrelevant whether the woman actually used the purchased clothing and accessories exclusively for business purposes.
The court thus agreed with the assessment of the tax office responsible for the influencer.
A married couple who filed their tax return jointly filed the lawsuit.
According to the court, the influencer is a woman who runs a fashion and lifestyle blog on various social media channels and a website.
In addition to the goods she had received from various companies to promote them, the plaintiff had purchased various items of clothing and handbags from well-known brands, which she said were important for practicing her profession.
She wanted her expenses to be taken into account as business expenses.
Initially it was about a share of 40 percent of the actual expenses and later also about being able to fully deduct the accessories she purchased from her taxes.
The tax office, which had looked into the woman's influencer activities as part of a so-called external audit, had refused to recognize the expenses as business expenses - on the grounds that all of the items purchased could also be used privately.
The couple argued, however, that the purchased accessories would only be used in a professional context, for example in so-called stories for social media.
Those stories are staged in such a way that they have a private context: but if the woman publishes texts and pictures and mentions business partners, it is about her professional activity.
mbö/dpa