Important!
This text does not replace legal advice from a tax advisor. It serves only as supportive information. We recommend seeking professional tax advice when filing your tax return.
At a glance
The export function allows Circula users to download their submitted trips in a PDF as a bundle.
The export document includes an overview of all trips, the associated tax-free additional meal expenses, and the total of the additional expenses for meal thresholds reimbursed by the employer.
The export supports tax filing by providing a summary of reimbursed and non-reimbursed amounts.
What is the purpose of this export?
If employees are on business trips for more than eight hours, non-reimbursed per diems can be claimed as work-related expenses in their private tax declaration under certain conditions. This applies whether none or only part of the tax-free per diem thresholds have been reimbursed by the employer. This export provides support with an overview of reimbursed and non-reimbursed amounts.
Why Does the Export Only Include Trips and Not Travel Expenses or Other Costs?
Non-reimbursed travel expenses incurred with a private vehicle can be deducted as work-related expenses under certain conditions. However, these travels are not submitted or processed in Circula. The Circula travel expense function is intended for reimbursing travel expenses and/or documenting non-reimbursable travels with a company car.
General expenses processed in Circula are usually irrelevant for income-related expenses in a private tax declaration.
Where Can I Get More Information About My Private Tax Declaration?
Only tax advisors with appropriate qualifications are authorized to provide assessments on tax matters.
How Do I Create My Export?
Click on your name in the lower-left corner and then on "Account Settings".
Account settings in the web app
Open the "Tax Export" tab.
The Tax Export tab in the web app
Select the year you want to export.
Selection of the year
Click on "Download".
Downloading the Tax Export
How Is the Export Structured?
General Information
Taxpayers must declare the following on their tax declaration:
The per diems they were entitled to under tax-free regulations.
Any deductions due to meal reimbursements.
The actual reimbursement received from the employer.
The export structure follows the ELSTER online tax filing form.
Values are listed according to the ELSTER format.
The amounts are consolidated per destination.
For trips within Germany, standard per diem rates are pre-filled, whereas international per diems must be manually added.
Trips Within Germany
All travel days that took place within Germany are bundled. This means that also trip segments can appear, if only a part of the trip was abroad. The daily rates are stored in ELSTER and therefore not in the export.
Single-day trips over 8 hours: Summarizes all one-day trips exceeding 8 hours of absence (currently: €14 per day).
Arrival and departure days: Summarizes all arrival and departure days using the German rate (currently: €14 per day). A value of "5" means that the user had five arrival or departure days at the German rate.
24-hour absence: Summarizes all full travel days within Germany (currently: €28 per day). If there were two three-day trips, this value would be "2" since the first and third days of both trips do not count as full travel days.
Deductions due to meal reimbursements: If meals were reimbursed by the employer, the per diem allowance must be reduced (e.g., breakfast deduction of €5.60). The total sum of all deductions is listed here. Only the actual deduction applies, e.g. if lunch and dinner were reimbursed on the arrival day, the deduction is capped at the arrival-day per diem of €14.00.
Trips outside Germany
Travel days are grouped by destination.
If a trip included multiple destinations with different per diem rates, it is split accordingly.
International per diem rates are not pre-filled in ELSTER and are therefore listed individually per day in the export.
Reimbursed by the Employer
Displays the actual total amount reimbursed by the employer.
Important!
The tax export does not include trips that fall under the 3-month rule. If this function is enabled for a trip, it will not appear in the report. The reason for this is that when this rule applies, per diems are not paid out and are therefore irrelevant for the income tax declaration.
Do you still have questions?
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