Until now, business travellers have been exempt from paying tourist tax in Berlin hotels. The regional parliament has decided otherwise, and it is highly likely that they will have to pay their share from 2023 onwards.
Accommodation tax in Germany has been in existence for around ten years and, as in France it varies from town to town or from Land to Land. Bavaria and Munich, for example, continue not to impose this accommodation tax, while in Dortmund it amounts to 7.5% of the total amount paid. In Saxony, travellers pay 6% of tax in Dresden but only 3 euros in Leipzig.
However,...
Until now, business travellers have been exempt from paying tourist tax in Berlin hotels. The regional parliament has decided otherwise, and it is highly likely that they will have to pay their share from 2023 onwards.
Accommodation tax in Germany has been in existence for around ten years and, as in France it varies from town to town or from Land to Land. Bavaria and Munich, for example, continue not to impose this accommodation tax, while in Dortmund it amounts to 7.5% of the total amount paid. In Saxony, travellers pay 6% of tax in Dresden but only 3 euros in Leipzig.
However, until now, business travellers were generally exempt from this tax. But in March this year, things changed...
When will business travellers be exempt?
In a decision dated 22 March 2022, the German Federal Constitutional Court ruled that local taxes on overnight stays in accommodation establishments were compatible with the Basic Law. The Federal Constitutional Court thus contradicts earlier case law from July 2020 of the Federal Administrative Court, according to which overnight stays spent in a professional capacity should be excluded from tax on expenditure for constitutional reasons. Taxation of business accommodation is therefore now possible, but not compulsory. The court thus recognised that the accommodation tax was local in nature and not comparable to a tax.
A case law that so decided to take Berlin into account. The city could start taxing business visitors from 2023. The city already charges tourists a tax of 5% on all nights spent in the capital, up to 21 nights. Taxing business travellers would be a first in Germany but it should be emulated. For the time being, the prospect of new elections has bracketed the parliamentary resolution.
In other towns and cities, business travellers are exempt from the accommodation tax, but they must prove that they are doing business.
However, the wave of accommodation taxes is gathering momentum in these times of budgetary stringency. At present, almost fifty German towns and cities - including Bremen, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Leipzig - are collecting this tax. According to information from the bettensteuer.de website, around fifteen other cities are expected to cross the Rubicon!
