E-Performance: Nothing will come of the tax-exempt job bike leasing at first. Particularly annoying for working bike commuters: E-cars are taxed better.
Tax-exempt e-bike leasing for employees: What the Federal Finance Committee promised for 2019 will probably not become reality in this form - to the detriment of around 250.000 company bike users nationwide. Because the new version of § 37 No. 3 EStG states that only those company bikes that are provided by the employer “in addition to the wages already owed” are tax-free, and these are very few. As a rule, business bike leasing works according to the well-known principle of salary conversion: the employer keeps that part of the salary that corresponds to the leasing rate and makes the vehicle available for it; the lessee has to pay tax on the resulting benefit in kind at a monthly rate of one percent of the list price of the vehicle.
Particularly annoying: the new 2019 percent rule will apply to electric cars from 0,5 – the tax rate for the benefit in kind will be halved. The fast S-Pedelecs, exotic in this country in cycling, are taxed at half a percent, especially since they are legally classified as motor vehicles.
It's difficult to understand why electric cars receive more subsidies than the significantly more environmentally friendly e-bikes, which also make a vital contribution to reducing traffic congestion. Nevertheless, industry representatives and leasing experts like the company "Jobrad" are expressing positive views: "We are pleased that the company bike has finally made it prominently onto the agenda of federal legislation," Jobrad Managing Director Holger Tumat told the German Bicycle Press Service. He now hopes for a decree from the state tax authorities that could bring about an adjustment for bicycle and pedelec riders so that they can benefit from the new 0,5 percent rule, because, as Tumat put it, "Anything else would be mere symbolic politics."
More information about e-bike leasing:
https://www.velomotion.de/2018/11/test-e-bike-leasing-eurorad/