Country guide · Germany · 7 min

Pendlerpauschale 2026: €0.38 from the first kilometre — which Arbeitstage count, and the Nachweis

By Andrei Zamiralov · Updated 5 Oct 2026

From 2026 the Pendlerpauschale is worth €0.38 for every kilometre of your way to work, not just the ones after the twentieth. The rate is the easy part. The tax return asks how many Arbeitstage you went, and no rule says what Nachweis that number needs.

The short answer

From 1 January 2026 the Pendlerpauschale (officially the Entfernungspauschale) is €0.38 for every full kilometre of the one-way distance, from the first kilometre. You claim it once for each working day on which you actually went to your erste Tätigkeitsstätte, your first workplace.

• The formula: €0.38 × full one-way kilometres × days at the first workplace.
• Days that count: only days you went there. Sick days, holidays, business trips, home-office days and short-time work do not.
• The cap: €4,500 a year, but not for the kilometres you drove in your own car or a car provided to you.
• Proof: no statute, guideline or BMF letter prescribes a document for the number of days. None sets a number of days the Finanzamt accepts without proof, either.

The source is § 9 Abs. 1 Satz 3 Nr. 4 EStG as amended by the Steueränderungsgesetz 2025.

What changed in 2026

The Steueränderungsgesetz 2025 of 22 December 2025 (BGBl. 2025 I Nr. 363, Artikel 2 Nr. 3) changed the rate in Satz 2 to €0.38 and struck Satz 8. Satz 8 was the rule that paid the higher rate only from the 21st kilometre. Artikel 12 Abs. 2 puts the change in force on 1 January 2026.

The text in force now reads:

"Zur Abgeltung dieser Aufwendungen ist für jeden Arbeitstag, an dem der Arbeitnehmer die erste Tätigkeitsstätte aufsucht eine Entfernungspauschale für jeden vollen Kilometer der Entfernung zwischen Wohnung und erster Tätigkeitsstätte von 0,38 Euro anzusetzen, höchstens jedoch 4 500 Euro im Kalenderjahr; ein höherer Betrag als 4 500 Euro ist anzusetzen, soweit der Arbeitnehmer einen eigenen oder ihm zur Nutzung überlassenen Kraftwagen benutzt."

A warning about older texts. The BMF letter on the Entfernungspauschale (18 November 2021, printed in the Lohnsteuer-Handbuch 2026 as Anhang 14) still shows the old split rate in its examples. The ELSTER help for the 2025 return does too, which is correct for 2025. For 2026, the statute wins: one rate from the first kilometre.

How the kilometres are counted

The distance, one way. The Pauschale is paid per Entfernungskilometer: the distance between home and the first workplace, not the kilometres you drive. The way back is included. H 9.10 LStH says it covers "arbeitstäglich zwei Wege (einen Hin- und einen Rückweg)".

Full kilometres only. BMF 18.11.2021 Rz. 12: "ein angefangener Kilometer bleibt unberücksichtigt". A distance of 23.6 km counts as 23.

The shortest road. Satz 4 takes "die kürzeste Straßenverbindung". A longer route counts only if it is "offensichtlich verkehrsgünstiger" and you use it regularly.

Once a day. Rz. 23: "Die Entfernungspauschale kann für die Wege zu derselben ersten Tätigkeitsstätte für jeden Arbeitstag nur einmal angesetzt werden." Driving home for lunch and back does not make a second day.

One leg, half a day. If you drive only one way on a day, H 9.10 allows "nur die Hälfte der Entfernungspauschale je Entfernungskilometer und Arbeitstag". That happens when you drive to the office and a business trip later ends at your home.

Which Arbeitstage count

The statute counts "jeden Arbeitstag, an dem der Arbeitnehmer die erste Tätigkeitsstätte aufsucht". That is not the same as your working days.

ELSTER's own help for Anlage N spells out what to leave out:

"Tage, an denen Sie die erste Tätigkeitsstätte nicht aufgesucht haben (zum Beispiel wegen Krankheit, Urlaub, Auswärtstätigkeit, Dienstreise, Heimarbeit, Kurzarbeit), dürfen Sie bei der Ermittlung der Entfernungspauschale nicht mit berücksichtigen."

You enter the number of days in Zeile 29 and the distance in Zeilen 30 to 33 (2025 form). Where only single legs are driven, the help says to enter "nur die halbe Anzahl der Arbeitstage".

Home-office days are not commute days. Your home office can never be the first workplace (BMF 25.11.2020 Rz. 4). On a day you work mostly at home and do not go to the first workplace, you can claim the Tagespauschale instead. It is €6 a day, at most €1,260 a year (§ 4 Abs. 5 Satz 1 Nr. 6c EStG). As a rule, a day is one or the other. The exception: if no other workplace is permanently available to you, the Tagespauschale is allowed even on a day you also work at the first workplace.

A client visit on the way does not change the commute. Drive to the office and leave from there for a client, and home to office stays a commute (H 9.10). Only office to client is a business trip, at €0.30 for every kilometre driven. Driving from home straight to a client, without the office, is a business trip from the start. Where the line runs is in commute or business trip: the erste Tätigkeitsstätte, and the business-trip side in business trips in your own car.

The €4,500 cap, and why it rarely binds a car

The cap applies to everyone except "soweit" an own or provided Kraftwagen is used. BMF 18.11.2021 Rz. 10 names who stays capped: motorcycle, scooter, moped, bicycle and walking, car-pool passengers on the days they do not drive, and public transport unless higher actual costs are shown.

Rz. 11 sets the condition for going above €4,500 by car:

"Der Arbeitnehmer muss lediglich nachweisen oder glaubhaft machen, dass er die Fahrten zwischen Wohnung und erster Tätigkeitsstätte mit dem eigenen oder ihm zur Nutzung überlassenen Kraftwagen zurückgelegt hat. Ein Nachweis der tatsächlichen Aufwendungen für den Kraftwagen ist für den Ansatz eines höheren Betrages als 4.500 € nicht erforderlich."

So you prove that you drove, not what the car cost. If you mix modes, such as Park & Ride or a car for only part of the year, the car part is split off and stays uncapped (Rz. 20–21).

What the Pauschale covers, and what reduces it

Everything is included. § 9 Abs. 2 Satz 1: "Durch die Entfernungspauschalen sind sämtliche Aufwendungen abgegolten, die durch die Wege zwischen Wohnung und erster Tätigkeitsstätte … veranlasst sind." Whatever the car costs you for the commute is inside the €0.38.

The statute and the guidelines name the exceptions:

• Public transport you actually paid, to the extent it exceeds the whole year's Pauschale (Satz 2).
• A disability degree of at least 70, or at least 50 with significantly impaired mobility in road traffic: actual costs instead, proven "durch amtliche Unterlagen" (Satz 3–4).
• Accident costs on the commute stay deductible beside the Pauschale (H 9.10), not under alcohol and not on a private detour.

Employer benefits reduce it. Tax-free job tickets and subsidies, and flat-taxed travel subsidies, "mindern den Betrag, den Sie als Entfernungspauschale abziehen können (maximal bis auf 0 €)" (ELSTER, Anlage N help). Your employer usually reports them to the Finanzamt electronically.

A company car. The Pauschale applies to a car "zur Nutzung überlassen" as well, uncapped. On the employer's side the same drive is taxed as a benefit, monthly or per day.

Nachweis: how you prove the days

No statute, Lohnsteuer-Richtlinie or BMF letter prescribes a document for the number of commute days. What the texts do say is narrower:

• To go above €4,500 by car, you must "nachweisen oder glaubhaft machen" that you drove (Rz. 11).
• Werbungskosten above the €1,230 Arbeitnehmer-Pauschbetrag count only if "nachgewiesen" (§ 9a Satz 1 EStG).

About "230 days". Many sites say the Finanzamt accepts 220 or 230 days without questions. No primary source sets such a number. If you claim a number of days, it is your number, and you should be able to explain it. A company car taxed by your employer's per-day method is a different matter with its own rules — see the 0.002% per-day rule.

What helps you explain it is not written down in any rule. A dated record of which days you were at the first workplace is one way. It turns a total into days you can point to in your calendar.

A worked year

Illustrative figures, not taken from any rule. You live 23.6 km from the office by the shortest road. You drive your own car there three days a week and work from home on two. Over 2026 that is 138 office days and 92 home-office days.

Together that is above the €1,230 Arbeitnehmer-Pauschbetrag, which is deducted anyway if your Werbungskosten are lower. Only the part above it, €1,758.12 − €1,230 = €528.12, lowers your taxable income further. Had you entered 230 commute days instead of 138, the claim would be 230 × €8.74 = €2,010.20. On paper it is higher, but 92 of those days did not happen.

Over the cap, by car. A colleague drives 61.4 km each way on 210 days: 61 × €0.38 = €23.18 a day, × 210 = €4,867.80. By car, all of it counts. Had the colleague gone by motorcycle, the claim would stop at €4,500.

Before you file

• Count days at the first workplace, not working days. Leave out sick, holiday, business-trip, home-office and short-time days.
• Use full kilometres of the shortest road, one way. 23.6 km is 23.
• One-leg days count half. Enter half the number of such days.
• Driving above €4,500? Be ready to show or make credible that you went by car.
• Subtract employer job tickets and subsidies shown on your wage tax certificate.
• Keep a dated list of the days. No rule asks for it, but it is how you explain the number.

How DriveHub keeps the days for you

The number the Finanzamt asks for is a count of days. DriveHub keeps the days themselves.

With location access set to Always, DriveHub records every drive in the background — and if it ever misses one, it tells you. DriveHub files most trips as Business or Personal by your places, past routes and working hours, and asks you about the rest. For the drive from home to work, answer Commute.

For Germany, DriveHub also calculates the annual commute deduction. In Reports, choose Year; the Commute tax deduction card appears for a car with commute trips. Review commute days opens the German commute deduction:

• Add days from commute trips turns the year's commute trips into days; Add a missing day covers a drive that was not recorded.
• For each day you confirm the One-way road distance, whether it was your First workplace, and the Travel legs (one or two).
• The footer says what to leave out: "Count only days you actually travelled. Home working, leave and sick days are excluded."

It shows the Base commute deduction and the Confirmed travel days. Enter the employer amounts from your wage tax certificate (Employer certificate line 17 and line 18), and it shows the Commute deduction after employer amounts. Over the whole year, the €4,500 ceiling applies only to transport other than an own or provided car. The amount appears once the calendar year has ended (for 2026, from January 2027), after you set All actual commute days entered to Yes, with every trip of the year reviewed. Enter 0 for line 17 or 18 if your certificate shows nothing.

What stays yours. Which place is your first workplace is decided by your employment arrangements, not by DriveHub. The figure is a calculation for you to check before you enter it in Anlage N.

DriveHub is on the App Store for iPhone. Germany's other rules are on the Germany page. Setting up automatic tracking takes a few minutes, once.

Sources

• § 9 Abs. 1 Satz 3 Nr. 4 and Abs. 2 EStG; § 9a Satz 1 EStG; § 4 Abs. 5 Satz 1 Nr. 6c EStG.
• Steueränderungsgesetz 2025 vom 22. Dezember 2025, BGBl. 2025 I Nr. 363, Artikel 2 Nr. 3 and Artikel 12 Abs. 2.
• BMF-Schreiben vom 18. November 2021 (Entfernungspauschalen), Rz. 10–12 and 20–23 (LStH 2026 Anhang 14); H 9.10 LStH 2026.
• BMF-Schreiben vom 25. November 2020 (Reisekosten), Rz. 4 (LStH 2026 Anhang 25 III).
• ELSTER, Anleitung zur Einkommensteuererklärung 2025, Anlage N, Zeilen 27–52.

This page states what the Einkommensteuergesetz, the BMF letters and ELSTER's form help say, and cites them so you can check. It is not tax advice. It can't account for your circumstances. Where the money matters, ask your Steuerberater — and bring the dates.

Longer reads

• Dienstwagen: 0.002% per commuting day instead of 0.03% a month (Einzelbewertung)
• Dienstreise mit eigenem Auto: €0.30 for every kilometre, and what you must be able to show
• Erste Tätigkeitsstätte oder Dienstreise: one is €0.38 once, the other €0.30 both ways