> 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/10148600-werkzeuge-z-b-rasenmaeher-kehrmaschine-heckenschere.md). # Tools (e.g. lawnmower, sweeper, hedge trimmer) Help on the Immodio entry item Tools (for example a lawnmower, sweeper, hedge trimmer).
You use this category for **tools, machines and working equipment with acquisition costs of more than €952 including VAT** that you use for your letting activity over a longer period. Important, Typical examples are: * lawnmowers, * sweepers, * hedge trimmers, * pressure washers, * chainsaws, * drills or other power tools, * larger cleaning machines, * equipment for maintaining outdoor areas, * or comparable independently usable working equipment. The condition is that the device concerned actually serves to **acquire, secure or maintain your rental income**. #### **This category is for tools over €952 including VAT** Immodio distinguishes here according to the acquisition costs. With an independently usable tool it in principle applies that * items **of up to and including €952** including VAT are posted to the category "Low-value assets" and * items **over €952** including VAT are posted to the category "Tools (for example a lawnmower, sweeper, hedge trimmer)". The limit for tax is **€800 excluding VAT**. At 19% VAT that is **€800 + €152 VAT = €952 including VAT** **Example: a lawnmower for €700** You buy a lawnmower for **€700 including VAT** to maintain the outdoor areas of your let properties. The amount is below **€952 including VAT** You therefore do **not** use the category "Tools (for example a lawnmower, sweeper, hedge trimmer)" but the category "Low-value assets". **Example: a lawnmower for €1,500** Where, by contrast, you buy a lawnmower for **€1,500 including VAT,** the acquisition costs are above **€952 including VAT**, and you use the category "Tools (for example a lawnmower, sweeper, hedge trimmer)". {% hint style="info" %} The €1,500 is not deducted in full for tax in the year of purchase; it is depreciated over the device's customary operational useful life. {% endhint %} #### **The useful life depends on the tool concerned** Tools and machines do not all have the same useful life for tax. The official depreciation table for generally usable fixed assets names, for example: * **lawnmowers → 9 years** * **sweepers → 9 years** * **pressure washers → 8 years** * **mobile saws → 8 years**. ### A practical case: a lawnmower for let properties A typical case is the acquisition of a **lawnmower** used to maintain the outdoor areas of let properties. Where the purchase price of the lawnmower has been recorded in the **"Tools (for example a lawnmower, sweeper, hedge trimmer)"** category because of its acquisition costs, the next step is to depreciate the device over its customary operational useful life in the category "**Depreciation of tangible assets (excluding depreciation on vehicles and buildings)**". {% hint style="info" %} For lawnmowers the useful life under [the official depreciation table](https://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/Web/DE/Themen/Steuern/Steuerverwaltungu-Steuerrecht/Betriebspruefung/AfA_Tabellen/afa_tabellen.html) is in principle **nine years**. {% endhint %} **Example** A lawnmower costs **€1,800** and is acquired in July 2026. The full purchase price for the acquisition itself is first recorded in the category:**"Tools (for example a lawnmower, sweeper, hedge trimmer)"**. With a useful life of nine years the straight-line depreciation is in principle: **€1,800 ÷ 9 years = €200 per year** Since the lawnmower was only acquired in July, depreciation can be claimed for only six months in the year of acquisition, that is: **€200 × 6/12 = €100** The depreciation in the first year is therefore **€100**. In the following full years **€200** a year is in principle to be taken into account as depreciation. The acquisition and the depreciation have to be distinguished: * **€1,800 of acquisition costs** → recorded in the category **"Tools (for example a lawnmower, sweeper, hedge trimmer)"** * **€100 of depreciation in the first year**→ recorded in the category "**Depreciation of tangible assets (excluding depreciation on vehicles and buildings)**" In the following years only the annual depreciation concerned is taken into account. The lawnmower is not recorded again each year as an acquisition in the tools category, but an entry is made each year in the category "**Depreciation of tangible assets (excluding depreciation on vehicles and buildings)**" with the corresponding depreciation. The reduction of the depreciation to the exact month in the year of acquisition follows from Section 7 (1) EStG. #### **The tool actually has to serve the letting activity** A lawnmower or a hedge trimmer does not become income-related expenditure merely because you are a landlord. The device actually has to be used for your letting activity. **Example: used exclusively for let properties** You own several let houses and use a sweeper exclusively to maintain the shared outdoor areas of those properties. There is then in principle a complete connection with your letting activity. **Example: used partly privately** You buy a hedge trimmer and use it: * **60% for the green areas of your let properties** * **40% for your private garden** In principle only the **share relating to the letting activity** of the acquisition or the depreciation may then be attributed to your letting activity. {% hint style="info" %} With mixed use the split should be documented appropriately and comprehensibly. {% endhint %} #### **Distinguish a tool from a part of the building** This category is intended for **movable, independently usable working equipment**. Not every technical device in connection with a property is therefore automatically a tool. An item that, for example: * is installed permanently in the building, * becomes part of a technical building installation, * or belongs permanently to the equipment of a rented apartment, has to be treated according to its actual function. **Example** * You buy a mobile pressure washer with which you clean various properties. That is in principle a tool that you can post to this category. * Where, by contrast, you have a technical installation permanently built into the building, that is not an ordinary movable tool and may not be posted to this category. #### **Take care with several components of a tool** The €952 limit is in principle examined for the **individual independently usable asset**. Section 6 (2) EStG expressly requires the asset concerned to be independently usable. Where a component can, according to its purpose, only be used together with another asset and is technically matched to it, the assessment can turn out differently. The device, its necessary components and mere additional accessories should therefore be assessed according to their actual connection in use and, where appropriate, posted together. #### **Do not recover the purchase of the tool from tenants** The costs of **running garden maintenance** can in principle be operating costs where the requirements in the rental agreement are met. Section 2 no. 10 BetrKV expressly names the maintenance of landscaped areas, playgrounds and certain squares, entrances and accesses. {% hint style="warning" %} The **landlord's purchase of a tool or machine of their own** is to be distinguished from that, however. {% endhint %} Buying a new lawnmower, for example, may not simply be taken over into the operating cost statement as a purchase price. This category first serves to **record the asset acquired by the owner**. The question of which costs of garden maintenance actually carried out by you yourself can be claimed as operating costs is to be assessed separately from that. With work performed by the owner, Section 1 BetrKV in principle allows the amount that could be claimed for an equivalent service by a third party. #### **Assignment in Immodio** With this category the assignment is to the **owner**. Select the owner who owns the tool and whose letting activity the device actually serves. #### **Which documents should you keep?** Keep in particular: * the **purchase invoice or purchase contract**, * proof of payment, * an exact description of the device, * the date of acquisition, * the invoice for delivery and other direct incidental acquisition costs, * where applicable, the serial or device number, * records on the **useful life and depreciation** applied, * with mixed use, a comprehensible calculation of the **share relating to the letting**, * repair and maintenance receipts during the useful life, * and, on the sale or disposal of the device, the corresponding evidence. That keeps it comprehensible later when the tool was acquired, what value is to be depreciated and to what extent it actually serves your letting activity.