ᐅ Photovoltaic System: Costs and Savings Potential – Experiences?

What exactly do you mean by that?
I received a full refund of the value-added tax (VAT) for the purchase (over 3,000 €) from the tax office.
For the feed-in, I regularly submit the advance VAT return via Elster.
What I haven’t declared yet is the feed-in tariff.

Taxes are unfortunately not my strong suit. I will need to visit an accountant soon to clarify quite a few things.

Feed-in and self-consumption must be included in the preliminary notifications and the annual report. Additionally, self-consumption should be reported as part of the profit and loss appendix (Anlage EÜR) in the income tax return. Both annual declarations had to be submitted by July, unless a tax advisor handles this for you. However, your statement that YOU have been submitting the declarations so far contradicts this.

Until now, our income tax return has always been prepared by the income tax assistance association.
However, due to the photovoltaic system, the association is no longer allowed to handle our tax return.
Therefore, we will need to consult a tax advisor for the 2020 tax return.
As I mentioned, I have submitted the preliminary tax return through Elster so far. I briefly had an employee from the tax office explain to me what to enter. However, I have already received quite different information regarding the billing.
The tax office employee said I should use 20 cents/kWh as the basis for calculating the tax on self-consumption.
A friend of mine also uses a tax advisor for his tax return, and he was apparently told that there is no fixed rule for the calculation. Therefore, one could simply use 9 cents/kWh as the basis for both self-consumption and feed-in. This would effectively halve the tax burden.

DaGoodness schrieb:

What exactly do you mean by that?
I received a full refund of the value-added tax for the purchase (over 3,000€) from the tax office.

You can only get this VAT back as a "business" with the intention to make a profit.
I don’t see that as applicable if you give up the feed-in tariff!

I would need to check on that again.
For example, I still received a statement from the grid operator at the end of the year regarding the feed-in tariff. However, the payee listed there is the company Senec. I am still officially the recipient of the statement.
In addition, I still receive a compensation from Senec for the feed-in amount that exceeds the annual allowance.

DaGoodness schrieb:

A friend of mine also does his tax return through a tax advisor who told him there is no fixed rule for the calculation. Therefore, one could simply use 9 cents per kWh as the basis for calculating both personal consumption and feed-in.

No, that is not correct. There is no fixed value to apply, but there is a legally defined calculation basis. For sales tax (VAT), this is the procurement cost for your supply from the grid operator (net). Basic fees and premiums must be considered. This usually results in roughly 20 cents, which is why some tax offices accept a flat rate of 20 cents.

Since no calculation method is shown in the tax return, it is quite possible that the tax office may not notice small amounts in your friend’s case, but it remains a classic case of tax evasion/underreporting.

For income tax, the value to apply is the lost feed-in remuneration.

Income, profits, depreciations, and costs must then be offset in the profit and loss statement (Anlage EÜR). If this results in a profit, it is taxed as income at the regular personal income tax rate. If it results in a loss, it reduces the taxable income. However, caution is required here, as @RotorMotor rightly points out: the statement must show profits over a 20-year horizon, otherwise the status as a business entity and all its benefits (including any VAT already repaid) are lost.