Costs for lift installation as an extraordinary burden

The tax assessment of costs as extraordinary expenses requires that the expense is extraordinary, necessarily arises as a result of exceptional circumstances, and significantly impairs the economic viability of the taxpayer.

The BFG (GZ RV/7103390/2019 of 19.10.2021) had to deal with a case in which, even if there was a 100 %% disability (the taxpayer suffered from a neurological illness, was completely dependent on care and could only move his head), the tax claim for the cost of installing an elevator was questioned. In fact, there is no exceptional burden (due to the construction costs of the elevator in a building) if the elevator is also suitable for non-disabled people and, due to its design, is usable for all residents of the building and also valuable for physically impaired people.

Reasons for doubts about claiming extraordinary expenses included the fact that the elevator was installed in the taxpayer’s mother’s house, since the divorced taxpayer had no other place to live. Given the high cost of the elevator installation and the fact that the taxpayer stayed in the mother’s house for only 5 months, renting a living space on the ground floor would have represented a more reasonable alternative.

In its decision-making process, the BFG took into account the specific circumstances. The taxpayer actually lived together with his caretaker in the attic of his mother’s house for a certain period of time, which is why he (also for the short period that was not foreseeable at the beginning due to the later conflict with his mother) needed the elevator to get into the bedroom in his wheelchair. Consequently, there is a case of extraordinary hardship, which is also supported by the fact that the employees’ insurance agency (BVA) granted credit and subsidies for the installation of the elevator. Likewise, the so-called countervalue concept (as an argument against the existence of extraordinary hardship) does not apply in this case, since a house generally does not experience any increase in value due to the accessibility features, and thus the renovations lead to a decrease in property value. In the end, the costs for the installation of the lifts could therefore be considered an extraordinary expense that could be deducted from taxes.

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