Expenses for the production of income, deductible from your capital income, may include
- Phone expenses
- Computer and (broadband) connection expenses
- Purchase prices of books and other costs relating to work-related professional reading
The expenses must be related to your investment activities or other operations for the production of income.
When is it acceptable to claim a tax deduction for workspace expenses against income from capital?
If you work from home in order to gain or produce income from investments – often called capital income – a deduction based on home-office costs is acceptable against capital income.
- If you pursue this activity at your home on a full-time basis and the activity is continuous, you can claim €980 – the formula-based deduction.
- If the activity is pursued from time to time only, you can claim €245 – the partial formula-based deduction for a home office. However, to merely have a passive holding of various corporate stocks is not treated as working from home, so no expenses caused by a home workspace or office can be deductible.
Please note: related to individual taxpayers’ different types of received income, the maximum home office deduction can only be €980 in total (for the 2025 tax year), although several distinct work performances might be involved.
Example 1. Harvey is a wage earner, having a full-time employment. Harvey reads and watches news about the economy, business, and stock-exchange quotes. However, during a regular month, he only conducts very few transactions with his securities and stocks. He receives dividends every year from the stocks that he has held for a longer time.
Accordingly, the conclusion is made that Harvey’s investments are passive and geared for the long term. His trading with securities is a small, secondary activity when compared with his full-time employment. He cannot claim the standard formula-based deduction because he only pursues a small-scale activity at his home office in order to gain income from investments.
Example 2. Sirje is the owner of two apartments. She lives in one apartment and rents out the other on a short-term basis, typically through online vacation rental platforms. There are several guests every month.
As a result, Sirje uses a home office space for various kinds of management and maintenance work relating to the short-term rentals. She can claim the partial deduction of €245 because she works at her home, and her work is not full-time and not characterised by regular daily hours like a part-time occupation would be.
Example 3. Sami is an employee receiving wages and he works from home more than 50% of total hours. He can claim the standard formula-based deduction of €980 against his wage income in 2025. Although Sami also receives capital income, he cannot add any further home office deduction to the above total.
When filing taxes for the 2026 tax year, no home office deduction will be available relating to wage income any longer for those teleworking from home or from a vacation home. However, it will be possible, subject to certain restrictions, to claim a formula-based deduction relating to capital income. Read more about deducting expenses caused by the upkeep of a workspace.