A hearing aid may be put into costs unless its purchase is subject to the health condition of the operator
Last time we got two the tax interpretations of the Director of KIS, which relate to the purchase of a hearing aid and the possibility to include it in costs. It follows that personal expenses may be included in costs, unless they are intended to protect health and improve the quality of life, because such expenses, such as corrective glasses, belong to personal expenses and will be incurred independently of their activities.
Hearing aid for improving the quality of work can be included in costs
In the first case individual interpretation with 29 June 2020, reference no. 0112-KDIL2-2.4011.323.2020.2.AA operating is a psychologist and psychotherapist. It conducts one-person business activity in providing psychological services.
The type of activity conducted by the applicant requires a higher level of audibility as it is individual and group work with patients with anxiety and nervous disorders (e.g. aphonia), with people with a very quiet voice.
In order to be able to perform his profession better, the applicant needs a hearing aid, and due to his lack of significant hearing loss, he is not granted any relief for the apparatus and his purchase is not necessary for his daily operation.
The lack of a better level of audibility results in a significant reduction in the applicant's earning capacity.
As noted by Fiskus, according to the recipe Article 22(1) Act dated 26 July 1991 on personal income tax (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 1387, as amended): the cost of obtaining revenue is the costs incurred in order to obtain revenue or to preserve or secure the source of revenue, except for the costs listed above under Article 23., the expenditure indicated by the applicant has not been explicitly mentioned under Article 23 Personal income tax laws in the catalogue of expenditure excluded from the cost of obtaining revenue.
However, the fact that the expenditure has not been covered under Article 23(1) The Personal Income Tax Act does not give rise to the automatic acceptance of the presumption that all other costs which are not mentioned in that provision may be regarded as revenue costs.
According to the judgment of the Chief Administrative Court of 4 April 2017 reference no. II FSK 3526/16: Invariably, account must be taken of the primary qualifier, which is the impact of the expenditure on the amount of revenue achieved, the behaviour or the security of the source of income.
The occurrence of this impact (a causal link between expenditure and income) should be assessed (research) ad casum.
Therefore, bearing in mind the content Article 22(1) The Personal Income Tax Act should state that the application for expenditure on hearing aid, which is necessary in the course of a profession and is an essential part of the comprehensive execution of the service which the Applicant is carrying out and that this expenditure may objectively translate into income, will constitute a tax cost.
In conclusion, expenditure incurred by the applicant for the purchase of a hearing aid which is necessary for the proper provision of psychological services and is incurred in order to obtain revenue from the provision of those services in accordance with Article 22(1) The Income Tax Act will be the cost of obtaining revenue.
It will not include a hearing aid operating with hearing impairment
Another interpretation has emerged in this regard 13 November 2020 (Individual interpretation with 13 November 2020, reference no. 0115-KDIT3.4011.592.2020.2.KR - Director of National Tax Information) The request for interpretation presents the following future event. The applicant shall conduct its own business as a natural person.
He performs the profession of construction engineer, acting as an investor supervision inspector on several construction sites. The applicant's work consists of direct participation in coordination meetings. Special care is required when working on a construction site, when erecting objects.
Safety regulations require different warning signals, both visual and audible. the applicant also participates in various coordination meetings, where the various aspects and problems of the construction works are addressed precisely.
During the meeting, the applicant must fully understand the problems presented by the contractors in order to be able to solve them effectively. These situations are discussed, different ways are discussed. Due to the worsening hearing impairment, due to the work performed, it is necessary for the applicant to use a hearing aid.
The hearing aid will enable the proper performance of the function of investor supervision inspector. Using the camera will allow you to communicate correctly with the environment and will also make the applicant hear better what they say. Test use of the hearing aid showed that the applicant could talk to one Or a few people at a time.
The applicant indicated that the absence of such a apparatus would prevent him from exercising his profession and would greatly reduce his activity in the role of investor supervision inspector.
A similar situation seems to be different here, because the contractor already has a hearing disorder.
Referring to the above mentioned provisions to the event of the future Fiskus presented in the request, he concluded that the expenditure on purchasing the hearing aid is intended to protect the health and improve the quality of life of the applicant. The health-related expenditure of an economic operator is personal expenditure.
In the event of a hearing defect or worsening, a natural person is forced to purchase a hearing aid regardless of whether he is an economic activity or not. The purchase of a hearing aid meets the needs of a hearing impaired person, whether or not he is in business.
Nor can it be argued that a hearing aid is necessary solely for the purpose of the applicant’s business activity, since experience in life indicates that these devices are not used solely in professional work and in personal life.
Although it is therefore indicated that the purchase of a hearing aid is necessary in the conduct of the applicant’s business, the purchase is subject to a health condition, i.e.
an expenditure of a personal nature which is independent of the conduct of the business and, as such, cannot constitute the cost of obtaining the revenue of the applicant’s non-agricultural business.
In conclusion, the costs of obtaining income from non-agricultural economic activities cannot be included in the personal expenses of a taxable person conducting an economic activity, i.e. among others, those whose suffering is caused solely by his health.
The primary objective of such expenditure is to improve the health or quality of the taxpayer's life rather than to achieve income.