Commute deduction (Entfernungspauschale) explained simply

Germany’s commute deduction (Entfernungspauschale) is a work-related expense allowance for trips between your home and your first regular workplace. What matters is the one-way distance and the number of days you actually travelled.

It often has a noticeable impact because it applies throughout the year for many employees and can add up quickly.

You can typically claim the commute deduction if you regularly travel to your first workplace as an employee (and in many cases also as a self-employed person with a comparable setup).

• Home → first workplace (not: purely changing work locations with no fixed first workplace).
• Only for days you actually travelled.
• The basic logic is similar whether you commute by car, public transport, or bicycle.

If you have work-from-home days, they usually do not count as commute days. This is a very common source of errors.

The core logic is simple: one-way distance (km) × commute days. That yields the amount that can be considered as a work-related expense in many cases.

1. Use the one-way distance, not round trip.
2. Count only days you actually travelled.
3. Keep numbers plausible (for many full-time roles, commute days are often well below 260 once you account for holidays, sick leave, and work-from-home).

The rate per kilometer is defined by law and can vary by distance band. For an initial estimate, clean km and day counts matter most.

Commute days are days when you actually travelled from home to your first regular workplace. Not every calendar day or contracted working day is automatically a commute day.

If you’re unsure, start conservatively and refine later. A difference of 10–20 days can already change the result noticeably.

The per-kilometer amounts are legally set. In practice, most people gain more from correct km and correct days than from chasing small rate details.

• One-way distance is the key input.
• For longer distances, Germany applies a higher rate beyond a certain kilometer threshold.

If you need full accuracy, you can check the exact threshold later. For a quick estimate, get km and days right first.

A pragmatic approach: determine one-way distance, count commute days, sanity-check the result. That gets you most of the way and avoids the common mistakes.

SteuKompass then shows the likely impact as part of your estimate instead of giving you a single misleading number.

The most common mistakes with the commute deduction:

• Entering round trip instead of one-way distance.
• Using 260 days even though holidays, sick leave, and WFH reduce the real commute days.
• Unrealistic distances (much longer than the usual route without a reason).
• Counting days you did not commute to the first workplace (business trips, training, offsite meetings).

Avoid these, and you’re already close to a realistic estimate.

Two typical scenarios show why km and days matter more than over-optimizing details.

That’s why SteuKompass focuses on km and days in the quick check and shows the impact within the estimate range.

If your commute is entered correctly, it’s often one of the strongest drivers of a potential refund. The quick check reduces the topic to the essentials and shows a realistic range.

No document upload and no account required. Just the key numbers.