Reimbursement in the PKV base fare reduced tax deduction

BFH also adheres to the settlement principle for the transitional year
Contributions to the private health insurance are always to be deducted from contributions paid in the same year. This also applies if the reimbursement is granted for the previous year but in which the contributions were not fully tax deductible, as the Federal Finance Court (BFH) in Munich ruled in a judgment on the transitional tax year 2010 published on Wednesday, 12 October 2016 (Az .: XR 6/14).

Contributions to the health and long-term care insurance are tax-deductible special expenses. In the private health insurance (PKV), however, upper limits. In 2008, the Federal Constitutional Court rejected this as inadequate. A protection within the scope of the legal health and long-term care insurance belongs to the social legal subsistence level; in the case of private health insurance too, corresponding protection must therefore remain untaxed (decision of 13 February 2008, ref. 2 BvL 1/06).

PKV insured are less likely to go to the doctor. Image: © stockWERK - fotolia

As a result of a new legal provision, since 2010 contributions to private health insurance have been fully deductible as special expenses. The benefits here correspond to those of the statutory insurance. There are currently 29,400 private individuals with base rates.

In the case of dispute, the insured had received a reimbursement for 2009 in 2009. Such reimbursements are granted by private insurers, in particular when insured persons have not used benefits for one year.

The tax office offset this reimbursement with the contributions paid in 2010, thus reducing the tax deduction. The applicant, on the other hand, contended that the reimbursement was granted for 2010 when he was unable to claim the contributions in full for tax purposes.

The BFH nevertheless maintained the principle that reimbursed special expenses should always be counted towards the "paid similar special expenditure" of the reimbursement year. This also applies, for example, to church tax. It is not a violation of the judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court, it says in the now published written judgment of 6 July 2016. mwo