Cashback Tax for Self-Employed in Germany 2026: Expense Reduction or Other Income?

Credit cards hand out reward points, Amazon pays referral bonuses, banks lure you in with sign-up cash, even your office supplier kicks back 1–3%. Cashback is everywhere in 2026. For self-employed people in Germany the question is: do I have to tax this? The answer does not depend on the amount but on why you are getting the cashback.

Key points at a glance

• There are two cashback types: expense-linked cashback (reduces the business expense) and bonus cashback with no service in return (other income under § 22 Nr. 3 EStG).
• Expense cashback is never booked as revenue — you cut the expense and correct the input VAT you claimed in the month it arrives.
• Bonus cashback is private: a €256-per-year threshold, declared on Anlage SO of your private tax return, not in the EUR.
• Threshold, not allowance: at €255.99 everything stays tax-free, at €256.00 the whole amount becomes taxable.
• Add up all sources: referral bonuses, account bonuses and app rewards count together toward the €256 — not per provider.
• Crypto cashback is valued in euros at receipt; a later sale of the coins is a separate private disposal.

Two kinds of cashback — two tax rules

Tax law splits cashback into two camps, and getting the classification right decides everything else:

• Expense-linked cashback — you buy something (office supplies, software, a service) and the seller pays part of it back. This is not new income but a reduction of business expenses. The tax office treats it like a retroactive discount: pay €100, get €5 back, and you have economically spent €95.
• Bonus cashback without a linked expense — referral bonuses, account opening rewards, app promotions with no concrete service in return. Here you receive money without having spent proportionally more in exchange. These count as other income (sonstige Einkünfte) under § 22 Nr. 3 EStG.

The rule of thumb: if the cashback hangs on a specific purchase, it reduces the expense. If you get it for an action (referring, opening an account, installing an app), it is income.

Overview: how each cashback type is treated

Expense-linked cashback: just net it against the cost

Example: you order €500 net of marketing material. Three weeks later the supplier wires back €20 cashback. In your EUR you do not book the cashback as revenue — you reduce the expense to €480. That keeps your profit, input VAT and final tax return clean.

Important: you also have to adjust the input VAT. If you reclaimed 19% on €500 (= €95), you must correct €3.80 (= 19% of €20) in the UStVA of the month the cashback arrives. Otherwise the tax office will flag it later.

The reason is simple: you can only deduct input VAT on the amount you actually spent. When the cashback lowers the taxable base, the deductible input VAT drops with it. Skip the correction and you have over-claimed input VAT — a classic finding in a VAT audit.

Bonus cashback: the €256 threshold and its trap

Bonuses with no concrete service in return — say, €100 for referring a banking app — count as private other income. There is a Freigrenze (threshold) of €256 per year (§ 22 Nr. 3 Satz 2 EStG). This is not an allowance: the moment you hit €256, the entire amount becomes taxable, not just the excess. €255.99 is tax-free — €256.00 means you owe income tax on the full €256.

The second trap: the €256 applies per person per year across all sources, not per provider. Collect €100 referral bonus from three different banks and you are at €300 — over the line, even if each single bonus looks harmless. So you must add up all bonuses of a year before checking the threshold.

Important: these bonuses belong in your private tax return (Anlage SO, income under § 22 Nr. 3 EStG), not in the EUR — even if the cashback lands on your business account. Book it out as a private withdrawal, otherwise you will distort the profit. If you keep business and private money on separate accounts anyway (see the three-account system), this split is much easier.

Common real-world cases

• Credit card cashback on a business card: if the card is used exclusively for business, the cashback reduces the related expenses. Mixed use must be split pro rata.
• Refer-a-friend bonus: even if received on your business account, it is private. The €256 threshold applies.
• Bank account opening bonus: if the account is purely a business account, the bonus is business revenue. Private account = other income.
• Cashback portal (Shoop, iGraal): business purchase → reduces business expense. Private purchase → not relevant for the EUR.
• Crypto cashback (e.g. Bitcoin reward on a card): book the euro value at receipt. A later sale of the coins is a private disposal.

Crypto cashback: you have to look twice

Cards from crypto providers pay cashback not in euros but in coins. That triggers two separate tax events:

1. At receipt you value the reward at its euro value on the day it is credited. That value counts as other income under § 22 Nr. 3 EStG and goes into the €256 threshold — together with your other bonuses.
2. At a later sale of the coins a second bucket applies: the private disposal under § 23 EStG. Sell within one year of receipt at a gain and that gain is taxable — with its own threshold of €1,000 per year (since 2024, previously €600). Hold the coins longer than a year and the sale is tax-free.

Important: the two thresholds (€256 at receipt, €1,000 at sale) are separate buckets. Note the euro value and the date of receipt for every crypto credit — otherwise you cannot prove the one-year holding period later.

Health and insurance bonuses

Cashback-like payments exist outside business too, with their own rules. Bonuses from your statutory health insurer for health-conscious behaviour (sports course, check-up, non-smoking) are, per the tax authorities, tax-free up to €150 per year (BMF letter of 28 Dec 2023). Anything above that counts as a premium refund and reduces your deductible insurance contributions — so you can claim less as special expenses. Plain premium refunds from private insurers reduce the special-expense deduction in full in the year they are paid out.

What about the UStVA?

For expense-linked cashback you have to cut the input VAT you previously claimed — use line 67 ("input VAT from other businesses’ invoices") in the UStVA of the month the cashback arrives. Bonus cashback does not belong in the UStVA at all, because it is not VAT-able.

How to book it cleanly

Five rules for clean books:

1. Classify the source — is the cashback linked to a specific business expense?
2. If yes: cut the expense in the EUR and correct the input VAT in the same month.
3. If no: book it as a private withdrawal from the business account, declare it on Anlage SO, check the €256 threshold.
4. Archive the documents: cashback credit notes, bonus notifications, card statements.
5. Watch cashback portals — many platforms report your earnings under the Platform Tax Transparency Act (PStTG) to the Federal Central Tax Office once you cross 30 transactions or €2,000 per year.

Frequently asked questions

Do I even have to tax cashback?

Not automatically. Expense-linked cashback is not income — it reduces your expense, so no extra tax arises. Bonus cashback with no service in return is taxable, but only once all bonuses of a year together reach €256.

Where do I declare cashback in my tax return?

Bonus cashback above the threshold goes on Anlage SO (other income) of your private income tax return. Expense-linked cashback never appears separately — it is already baked into the reduced business expense in your EUR.

Does the €256 limit apply per provider or in total?

In total. You add up all bonus cashback of a calendar year across every provider, and only then check whether the €256 has been exceeded.

Are referral and welcome bonuses always taxable?

Yes, they count as other income in principle — but they only become tax-effective if the sum of all bonuses exceeds the €256 threshold. Below that they stay tax-free.

What about cashback on the business account that is actually private?

You book it as a private withdrawal from the business account and treat it as other income. It must not raise the profit in your EUR, even though the money arrived on a business account.

Bottom line

Cashback is not a tax edge case, but it is a classic bookkeeping landmine. Booking €20 as revenue instead of cutting the expense distorts both profit and input VAT. Anyone collecting referral bonuses should check yearly whether they crossed the €256 mark. Norman with AI bookkeeping spots cashback transactions in your bank feed automatically and suggests the right booking — so the tax office finds nothing you missed.