What types of work give you the right to claim credit for household expenses?
This page lists the most common types of work that entitle you to the credit for household expenses.
What is household work, nursing and caregiving?
Examples of household work:
- cleaning
- cooking
- laundering, ironing and garment care
- yard maintenance and gardening
- snow shovelling.
Examples of nursing and care:
- child care
- assisting elderly or disabled individuals in cleaning, dressing or eating
- assisting another person in shopping and visiting the bank or pharmacy on another person’s behalf when done as part of other nursing or care work – for example, visiting the pharmacy on behalf of an elderly person receiving home nursing services
- physical and occupational therapy given at home as of 2024. However, the treatment must be conducted by a certified physical or occupational therapist, the company must have the right to provide these services and the company must be in the prepayment register.
Note: You cannot claim the credit for household expenses for health care and medical services that are not subject to VAT. However, there are some exceptions:
- You can claim the credit for social services, such as meal services or cleaning, if you purchase the service from a private-sector service provider and not from the municipality.
- You can also claim the credit for physical therapy provided by a certified physical therapist and for occupational therapy provided by a certified occupational therapist.
Renovation, maintenance and modernisation work
Examples of maintenance, modernisation and other renovation work:
- renovation of kitchen, bathroom and other rooms
- renovation of basement or sauna facilities in a detached house
- work relating to electricity, plumbing and cabling in a detached house
- painting of an outbuilding
- installation of security locks.
You can also get the credit if the work was done at your secondary apartment or town apartment. However, you cannot get the credit for renovating an investment property that you have rented out or for building an extension or addition that is comparable to a new building.
Check from the table whether you are entitled to the credit
The table below lists some of the types of work that are typically done in a home or holiday home and that often appear in questions concerning the credit for household expenses.
Go to
|
Tax Credit Available |
|
|---|---|
|
Cleaning of aquariums and terrariums |
No |
|
Professional organisers’ work Professional organisers go over the customer’s home systematically in cooperation with the customer, organising and making space. They help the customer to dispose of unnecessary items and organise their important possessions and papers better. |
Yes |
|
Cleaning of the apartment (includes cleaning of both the old and new apartment when you are moving) |
Yes |
|
Mold and mildew cleaning of the home or holiday home and its furniture |
Yes |
|
Installation of a digital set-top-box, DVD player or TV, and user guidance (also when you are moving) |
Yes |
|
Leaf raking and other maintenance of the yard or garden |
Yes |
|
Re-upholstering of furniture |
No |
|
Waste transport |
No |
|
Going to a shop, bank, pharmacy, etc. |
No |
|
Going to a shop, bank or pharmacy when it is part of a more extensive service entitling to the tax credit. |
Yes |
| Keeping company with the elderly as part of a more extensive household, nursing or care service that entitles to the tax credit | Yes |
|
Walking a dog or another pet when it is part of a more extensive service entitling to the tax credit (even though, literally speaking, the work is not done in the taxpayer’s home) |
Yes |
|
Sleep-school at home (a sleep consultant comes to your home to help the family find a good sleeping rhythm) |
No |
|
Garment care in the home (laundering, ironing, repairing) |
Yes |
|
Transport service |
No |
|
Watering the flowers in the home and garden |
Yes |
|
Nursing and caring for children or for sick, disabled or elderly people in the taxpayer’s home or holiday home |
Yes |
|
Home teaching or additional tuition for children in the home |
No |
|
Helping children with homework as part of a more extensive nursing or care service that entitles to the tax credit |
Yes |
|
Cesspit emptying |
No |
|
Snow shovelling and snow removal from the garden or yard |
Yes |
|
Nursing and care, provided by your employer as a fringe benefit |
No |
|
Household work, provided by your employer as a fringe benefit |
No |
|
Musicians, orchestras or other performing artists requested to perform (e.g. in a wedding or birthday party) |
No |
|
Removal service and associated packing of personal possessions and dismantling and reassembling of furniture |
No |
| Goods collection service | No |
|
Assembling of new pieces of furniture |
Yes |
|
The basic charge for sheltered housing, and other associated charges (for rent, water, sauna, electricity, meal service and garment care) |
No |
|
A service voucher granted by a local government unit for the same household work, nursing or care (irrelevant whether you have used the voucher or not) |
No |
|
Household work, nursing or care in the personal facilities of a person living in a sheltered housing unit, if the taxpayer has not received a municipal service voucher for the same purpose |
Yes |
|
Catering, coffee making and cooking service in connection with a family function at home |
Yes |
|
Piano tuning |
No |
|
Logging of trees in the garden or yard or pruning of branches |
Yes |
|
Logging of trees in connection with new construction |
No |
|
Chopping firewood and collecting the chopped wood in a certain spot |
Yes |
|
Gardening and planting |
Yes |
|
Weeding |
Yes |
|
Installation of a robot lawnmower in the garden of your home or holiday home |
Yes |
|
Cooking |
Yes |
|
Home transport of groceries and other supplies |
No |
|
Cutting the grass or hedge |
Yes |
|
Ironing, laundering and other garment care in the home |
Yes |
|
Planning, when it is a minor part of a more extensive service that entitles to the tax credit |
Yes |
|
Installation of Venetian blinds |
Yes |
|
Installation of a computer, and user guidance (also when you are moving) |
Yes |
|
Installation and updating of software, and performing of virus checks on applications and files |
Yes |
|
Pest control in the home or garden or yard |
Yes |
|
Security services in a sheltered housing unit |
No |
|
Security and guarding services (for example, alarm visits and control visits to an empty apartment or holiday home) |
No |
|
Expenses arising from service charges, devices or supplies and transport, travel and travel time expenses in association with ordinary household work, nursing and care |
No |
|
Maintenance of green walls, including leaf cutting, removal of yellow leaves, checking the plants, dusting, etc. |
Yes |
|
Tax Credit Available |
|
|
Maintenance and modernisation (painting of the interior, wallpaper hanging, repairing or changing the floor coating, renovating the bathroom or sauna, installation of kitchen cupboards, installation of a central vacuum cleaning system) |
Yes |
|
Professional supervisor work during a maintenance and modernisation project |
Yes |
|
Washing the walls in preparation for a paint job (maintenance work) |
Yes |
|
New construction of an apartment or building |
No |
|
Installation of solar-energy panels in a house, holiday home, housing-company dwellings if the shareholder is responsible for the upkeep of such panels under the provisions of the Act governing housing companies. |
Yes |
|
Further construction associated with new construction, and separate additional and alteration jobs |
No |
|
Construction of separate covered buildings and structures in the yard or garden |
No |
|
Maintenance and modernisation of separate covered buildings and structures in the yard or garden |
Yes |
|
Dismantling of separate covered buildings and structures in the yard or garden, in full or in part |
No |
|
Construction or dismantling of lightweight structures (patios, terraces, light roofings, jetties) |
Yes |
|
Glazing of a terrace of patio included in the home when heat insulation is not installed |
Yes |
|
Expanding of the apartment or building |
No |
|
Conversion of an unheated space (attic or basement) and a storage room into a living space |
No |
|
Partial modernisation of the apartment without changing its purpose of use (removal of a supporting wall, changes to the room layout, building of a sauna) |
Yes |
|
Doing up a detached house by painting it from the outside |
Yes |
|
Installation and maintenance of an antenna for a detached house |
Yes |
|
Recladding of a detached house and associated dismantling |
Yes |
|
Renovation of an empty apartment, when the apartment is to be taken for the taxpayer’s own use immediately after the renovation |
Yes |
|
Renovation of an empty apartment (also if an estate pays for the renovation), when the apartment is not to be taken for own use after the renovation |
No |
|
Condition checks, measurements and surveys |
No |
|
Condition checks, when they are part of more extensive maintenance or modernisation that entitles to the tax credit |
Yes |
|
Installation of security locks |
Yes |
|
Installation and maintenance of alarm and security systems |
Yes |
| Service charges of alarm and security systems | No |
|
Boiler cleaning and boiler efficiency measurement |
Yes |
|
Maintenance of a boiler oil burner |
Yes |
|
Cleaning, measuring, adjustment and maintenance of ventilation equipment |
Yes |
|
Chimney sweeping |
No |
|
Maintenance and modernisation of water pipes, the sewage system, the electric system, the lighting system or data communications networks in the garden or yard of a detached house or holiday home |
Yes |
|
Tiling, asphalt paving and other coating work in the garden or yard |
Yes |
|
Building and maintenance of a garden fence |
Yes |
|
Construction of a drilled or other well in the garden or yard |
Yes |
|
New construction of the garden or yard |
No |
|
Costs of building a driveway within the garden or yard |
Yes |
|
Work done outside the garden or yard (dredging; road building; wiring, cabling and piping systems) |
No |
|
Cleaning the dry well |
Yes |
|
Installation of electric wiring or a water piping system in an old holiday home |
Yes |
|
Connection charges (relating to power, water, sewage, district heat and telecommunications networks) of a detached house or a holiday home insofar as the charges are considered to immediately follow from the maintenance and modernisation performed in the garden or yard |
Yes |
|
Connection charges of a detached house or a holiday home when the taxpayer has received public financial support for repairs in the home |
No |
|
Construction of a sewage system in a sparsely populated area |
Yes |
|
Upgrading, improvement and repair of a heating system, installation and dismantling of such systems, if no energy subsidy has been granted for the heating system conversion. |
Yes |
|
Upgrading, improvement and repair of a heating system, installation and dismantling of such systems, if energy subsidy has been granted for the heating system conversion. |
No |
|
Installation of a solar or ground heat system and an air source heat pump in a detached house or holiday home |
Yes |
|
Maintenance of an air source heat pump |
Yes |
|
Installation of a home charging station for an electric car |
Yes |
|
Construction of a pellet storage room |
Yes |
|
Separate installation of household appliances and equipment (refrigeration equipment, cooker, cooker hood, washing machine) |
No |
|
Installation of household appliances as part of more extensive maintenance or modernisation work that entitles to the tax credit (e.g. in connection with kitchen renovations) |
Yes |
|
Installation and maintenance of ICT equipment |
Yes |
|
Change, maintenance and improvement of a jetty located adjacent to the garden or yard |
Yes |
|
Building a swimming pool, hot tub, bathtub or the like in the garden or yard |
No |
|
Building a compost bin |
No |
|
Maintenance and improvements insofar as they are the shareholder’s responsibility in accordance with the Limited Liability Housing Companies Act or the Articles of Association |
Yes |
|
Maintenance and improvements insofar as they are the housing company’s responsibility in accordance with the Limited Liability Housing Companies Act, the Articles of Association or a decision of the General Meeting. |
No |
|
Installation of a chair lift for stairs in the home |
Yes |
|
Maintenance and improvements of the interior of the apartment and balcony |
Yes |
|
Glazing of the balcony of the apartment |
Yes |
|
Maintenance and improvements of the outer surfaces of the apartment and balcony |
No |
|
Maintenance, change and rekeying of the locks in the apartment |
No |
|
Installation of an air source heat pump and a dish antenna outside the apartment or on the balcony |
Yes |
|
The structures, insulating materials and basic systems (heating, electricity, data communications, gas, water, sewage, ventilation, etc.) of the apartment |
No |
|
Maintenance and improvements in the interior of a garage or carport associated with the taxpayer’s shareholding in the housing company |
Yes |
|
Maintenance and improvements on the exterior of a garage or carport when the taxpayer is a shareholder in a housing company and when the Articles of Association state that the maintenance is the shareholder’s responsibility |
Yes |
|
Building and maintenance of patios, terraces, light roofings, jetties, fences or tiling in the garden or yard of an apartment in a housing company, and planting of flowers and shrubs |
Yes |
|
Glazing of a patio or terrace in the garden or yard of an apartment in a housing company when heat insulation is not installed |
Yes |
|
Professional supervisor work during maintenance and improvement of the apartment entitling to the credit |
Yes |
|
Maintenance and improvements in the home or holiday home insofar as the State, municipality or another public body has granted financial support for the work |
No |
|
Financial support granted to the housing company for maintenance and improvement work for which the shareholder is responsible and which entitles to the tax credit |
Yes |
|
Maintenance and improvements for which the shareholder is responsible and for which they pay to the housing company in the form of charges or other payments |
No |
|
The portion of maintenance and improvements paid by the insurance company |
No |
|
Asbestos survey |
No |
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