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# Flat-rate service charges / operating costs for garages and other rooms (19%)

Help on the Immodio entry item Flat-rate ancillary costs / operating costs for garages and other rooms (19%).

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You use this category for **flat-rate ancillary or operating cost payments** that your tenant pays you for a garage, a parking space or other rooms in addition to the rent itself under an agreed **flat-rate operating cost arrangement** and that are treated **with 19% VAT** together with the underlying tenancy.

With a flat-rate operating cost arrangement the landlord and the tenant agree a **fixed amount** with which the ancillary or operating costs covered by the flat rate are in principle settled.

{% hint style="warning" %}
This category is intended only for tenancies where the letting concerned and the associated flat-rate operating cost payment are **actually invoiced with 19% VAT**.
{% endhint %}

#### **Only post flat-rate operating cost payments with 19% VAT to this category**

Where you let a garage with 19% VAT, for example, and agree per month:

* **net rent for the garage: €150**
* **flat-rate operating cost payment: €30**

the two items of income are recorded separately:

* the **€150 net rent** in the appropriate category for the rental income from the garage or the other rooms, for example in the category "[Base rent for let garages (including 19% VAT)](/en/anleitung/einnahmen-und-ausgaben/buchhaltung-erweiterung/10081100-kaltmiete-von-vermieteten-garagen-inklusive-19-umsatzsteuer.md)"
* the **€30 flat-rate operating cost payment** in the category → **"**[Flat-rate ancillary costs / operating costs for garages and other rooms (19%)](/en/anleitung/einnahmen-und-ausgaben/buchhaltung-erweiterung/10144910-pauschale-nebenkosten-betriebskosten-fuer-garagen-und-andere-raeume-19.md)**".**

{% hint style="info" %}
Since the underlying tenancy is treated as subject to VAT, the associated flat-rate operating cost payment is in principle also subject to the corresponding **19% VAT treatment** under Section 12 (1) UStG.
{% endhint %}

#### **The difference from an advance payment of operating costs**

A **flat rate for operating costs** and an **advance payment of operating costs** are not the same thing.

With an **advance payment** the tenant first pays instalments during the year. The actual costs are settled later in accordance with the contractual agreement and compared with the advance payments already made.

This can result in:

* an **additional payment by the tenant**
* or a **credit balance for the tenant**

{% hint style="warning" %}
With a **flat-rate operating cost payment**, by contrast, there is in principle **no later settlement based on the costs actually incurred**. The flat rate agreed is intended precisely to settle the costs it covers through a fixed amount.
{% endhint %}

The following therefore applies to this Immodio category:

* **A flat rate with a letting of garages or other rooms taxed at 19%** is posted to the category→ **"**[**Flat-rate ancillary costs / operating costs for garages and other rooms (19%)**](/en/anleitung/einnahmen-und-ausgaben/buchhaltung-erweiterung/10144910-pauschale-nebenkosten-betriebskosten-fuer-garagen-und-andere-raeume-19.md)**"**.
* **An advance payment with such a letting is posted to the category**→ the category **"**[**Advance payment of ancillary costs / operating costs for garages and other rooms (19%)**](/en/anleitung/einnahmen-und-ausgaben/buchhaltung-erweiterung/10144900-vorauszahlung-nebenkosten-betriebskosten-fuer-garagen-und-andere-raeume-19.md)**"**.

{% hint style="info" %}
**A back payment or refund from an annual statement is**→ where advance payments are actually settled, posted to the category "[Back payments / refunds of operating costs / ancillary costs for garages and other rooms (19%)](/en/anleitung/einnahmen-und-ausgaben/buchhaltung-erweiterung/10092800-nachzahlungen-erstattungen-fuer-wohnraum-umsatzsteuerpflichtige-vermietung.md)".
{% endhint %}

**Example: a flat rate instead of an advance payment**

You let a garage separately to a tenant.

The following are agreed per month:

* **net rent: €150**
* **flat-rate operating cost payment: €30**

The annual flat-rate operating cost payment is therefore: **€30 × 12 = €360 net**

The costs actually incurred by you and covered by the flat rate amount in the same year to: **€420**

With a flat-rate operating cost arrangement that in principle does **not automatically produce an additional operating cost claim of €60**.

The calculation is therefore not made as with an advance payment:

**€420 actual costs – €360 flat rate = €60 back payment**

The **€30** agreed each month remains the flat-rate operating cost payment agreed and is recorded in: **"**[**Flat-rate ancillary costs / operating costs for garages and other rooms (19%)**](/en/anleitung/einnahmen-und-ausgaben/buchhaltung-erweiterung/10144910-pauschale-nebenkosten-betriebskosten-fuer-garagen-und-andere-raeume-19.md)**"**

{% hint style="info" %}
No ordinary credit arises with lower actual costs either.
{% endhint %}

**The same applies in the other direction.**

Annual flat-rate operating cost payment: **€360**

Costs actually incurred: **€300**

With an advance payment that could produce a credit of **€60**.

With a genuine **flat rate**, by contrast, that ordinary annual comparison in principle does **not** take place. No **€60 credit** for the tenant therefore arises.

#### **Only use it where 19% VAT actually applies**

{% hint style="warning" %}
The designation **"(19%)"** is decisive for this category.
{% endhint %}

Not every letting of a garage or other rooms is automatically subject to 19% VAT. Before using this category it should therefore be clear that the specific tenancy is actually treated as **subject to VAT**.

#### **Garages and parking spaces**

The separate letting of spaces for parking vehicles is in principle excluded from the VAT exemption for lettings of land.

That concerns, for example:

* single garages,
* underground parking spaces,
* outdoor parking spaces,
* car parks,
* other areas for parking vehicles.

{% hint style="info" %}
Section 4 no. 12 UStG expressly excludes the letting of spaces for parking vehicles from the exemption, so that the independent letting of a parking space is in principle subject to VAT.
{% endhint %}

**Example: a garage let separately**

You let a garage for **€95 net a month**

In addition you agree a flat-rate operating cost payment of **€30 net a month**

The garage is let as an independent taxable supply with **19% VAT**.

The **€30 flat-rate operating cost payment** then belongs in the **"**[**Flat-rate ancillary costs / operating costs for garages and other rooms (19%)**](/en/anleitung/einnahmen-und-ausgaben/buchhaltung-erweiterung/10144910-pauschale-nebenkosten-betriebskosten-fuer-garagen-und-andere-raeume-19.md)**"** category\*\*.\*\*

#### **A garage together with an apartment can be exempt from VAT**

A particularly important exception exists where the garage or parking space is merely an **ancillary supply to a VAT-exempt letting of an apartment**.

The tax authorities in principle treat the letting of a parking space as an exempt ancillary supply to the letting of the apartment where in particular:

* the apartment and the parking space are let by **the same contracting parties**
* and there is a corresponding **spatial connection**.

That as a rule also applies where the apartment and the parking space were agreed in two separate contracts.

**Example: an apartment with a parking space**

You let a tenant:

* an apartment
* **and** a parking space on the same land.

The letting of the apartment is exempt from VAT and the parking space constitutes an ancillary supply to that letting of the apartment.

The parking space is then in principle likewise **exempt from VAT**.

An associated flat-rate operating cost payment then does **not** belong in this 19% category; it is posted to the category "[Flat-rate ancillary costs / operating costs](/en/anleitung/einnahmen-und-ausgaben/buchhaltung-erweiterung/10099200-pauschale-nebenkosten-betriebskosten.md)".

#### **Assignment in Immodio**

With this category the assignment is to the **owner**. Select the **owner** to whom the income from the garage or the other rooms concerned is economically attributable.