> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://help.immodio.app/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://help.immodio.app/en/anleitung/einnahmen-und-ausgaben/buchhaltung-erweiterung/10103700-repraesentationskosten-z-b-dekorationsartikel-home-staging.md). # Representation costs (e.g. decorative items, home staging) Help on the Immodio entry item Representation costs (for example decorative items, home staging).
You use this category for **decoration, presentation and home staging costs** that serve your letting activity directly. Typical cases are in particular expenditure with which you: * **present an empty apartment attractively for a new letting**, * prepare a let property for viewings, * decorate a show or presentation apartment, * commission professional **home staging services**, * temporarily use decorative items for viewings, * or appropriately equip or decorate an office used exclusively for your property administration. What is decisive is that there is a comprehensible **economic connection with your letting activity**. Income-related expenditure is expenditure to acquire, secure and maintain income. #### **Home staging for the letting** Home staging means preparing a property specifically for its marketing. This can include, for example: * furniture placed temporarily, * rugs, * lamps, * pictures, * plants, * decorative items, * professional styling by a home staging service provider, * or digital or virtual home staging. Home staging is used both on a sale and on a letting in order to convey the effect and the possible uses of a property better to interested parties. **Example: home staging before a new letting** An apartment is empty after the previous tenant has moved out. For the new letting you commission a home staging service provider. They prepare the apartment for viewings for six weeks with: * a sofa, * a table, * lamps, * rugs, * pictures * and further decorative items . Costs of the home staging: **€1,500** The items are collected again after the letting has been successful. Since the service serves directly to find a new tenant, the **€1,500** can in principle be taken into account as letting-related expenditure and posted to the **"**Representation costs (for example decorative items, home staging)**"** category. {% hint style="info" %} Expenditure during a vacancy can in principle also be income-related expenditure where the intention to let continues and is recognisable from serious efforts to let. {% endhint %} #### **Decorative items actually have to serve the letting activity** Individual decorative items can also belong in this category where they are clearly acquired for the presentation of a let property or of an office used exclusively for the letting activity. For example: * plants for a viewing area, * pictures or wall decoration, * vases, * simple decorative objects, * presentation material for a show apartment. Care has to be taken, however, that the items are not actually **used privately**. **Example** You buy decorative items for **€180** with which you prepare an empty apartment exclusively for viewings. After the letting has been successful, the items continue to be used exclusively for presenting other let properties. There is then in principle a comprehensible connection with your letting activity. {% hint style="info" %} Where, by contrast, you buy the same items for your private living room and use them only once briefly for a viewing, there is **no** clearly letting-related expense. {% endhint %} #### **Distinguish home staging from permanent furnishing** Not every purchase for an apartment is automatically representation expenditure. A distinction has to be drawn between **temporary presentation, that is home staging,** and the **permanent equipment of the let property**. **Example** You rent furniture for four weeks exclusively for viewings. → typical **home staging** Where, by contrast, you buy: * a sofa, * a bed, * a wardrobe, * a television and these items then remain permanently in an apartment let furnished. This is then not home staging. Instead it has to be examined how the **furnishings acquired** are to be treated for tax. {% hint style="info" %} Higher-value items usable over a longer period can constitute assets of their own subject to wear and tear and may have to be depreciated over their useful life. Section 9 (1) no. 7 EStG expressly provides for depreciation to be taken into account for income-related expenditure. {% endhint %} #### **Office decoration only where there is a connection with the letting activity** The category can also be relevant for appropriate decoration or representation costs of an **office used for the letting activity**. For example: You keep a separate office exclusively for your property administration and buy for the meeting area there: * plants, * pictures, * simple decoration. As far as these items actually serve the landlord's office, there can be a connection with your letting activity. {% hint style="warning" %} With an ordinary private living room, hallway or other private living area, by contrast, the fact that you occasionally administer your properties there is **not** sufficient to turn private decoration into income-related expenditure of the letting activity. {% endhint %} #### **Not every "representation expense" is deductible for tax** The term **representation costs** does not mean that every representative or particularly high-value purchase can be taken into account for tax. Section 9 (5) EStG also refers, for income-related expenditure, to certain deduction prohibitions in Section 4 (5) EStG. These include in particular expenditure that touches on private living and is to be regarded as **inappropriate** according to general opinion. Whether an expense is inappropriate depends on the individual case. The Federal Fiscal Court takes into account, among other things: * the amount of the costs, * their significance for generating income, * how customary the expenditure is, * the extent of the activity, * and how close it is to private living. **Example: an unusual luxury item** You buy a work of art for your landlord's office for **€25,000** and want to justify the full amount solely by a "representative effect". Ordinary immediately deductible representation costs should not be assumed here without examination. Besides the question of an independent depreciable acquisition, the **appropriateness of the expense and its closeness to private living** can also be relevant. #### **Assignment in Immodio** With this category the assignment is to the **owner**. Select the owner whose letting activity actually caused the costs. Alternatively, with property-related home staging you can also post the costs to the **property** or the **unit**. #### **Do not recover from the tenant** Decoration, presentation and home staging costs in principle serve the landlord's **marketing or administration**. They do not constitute running operating costs of the let property. The **"Recoverable in the operating cost statement" switch therefore has to stay disabled**. With larger home staging or representation costs, keep in particular the **invoice, the description of the work and evidence of the let property concerned or the purpose of the measure**.