Here you can find out briefly and concisely what you need to know about working with deposits on your MINI by orderbird. But… first a fancy disclaimer:

Attention!

Everything we write, reflects our experience and the experience of our customers.
Please contact your tax advisor for legally binding statements on how to work with deposits in your business model in a tax-compliant manner.

Deposit and deposit

In general, there are two different types of deposit in Germany: 1.) the legally regulated deposit, e.g. for returnable bottles, and 2.) The free deposit.

The legally regulated deposit

This includes the bottle deposit for e.g. beer bottles and PET bottles. The deposit is taxed based on the tax of the initial item.
Example: You sell a 1.5 L water bottle, which is taxed with 19 %. If you take the deposit for it, the deposit (e.g. €0,25) is also taxed with 19 %.

This is how it looks on your receipt:

Deposit	Deposit returned

The free deposit

If you loan items to your customers and want to take a deposit for those - reunion is fun - you can choose the amount and take 0 % as the tax rate.

Example: You sell a planted bowl. In addition to the cost of the plants (€17.99), which is taxed at 19%, you take a deposit of €20. You do not have to pay tax on this and can therefore take the tax rate of 0%.

This is how it looks on your receipt:

Deposit	Deposit returned

Note: If you have a surplus of untaxed deposit on your next tax return, it will be taxed then.