I live today 50km away from the office which makes company car not a real benefit. Somebody advised me to rent a room somewhere close to the office and register myself there as home address but not necessarily live there. It will still be cheaper then paying full tax on company car. Is this something I could legally do?
Please let me know - do not want to run to any troubles with the tax man in Germany...
Marco

My son lives and works in Germany, so I know about the heavy tax on company cars ! He travels but still comes home. I don't think that would be a problem; it is only per se another residence as far as they are concerned. But given the high rental rates there, doubt if you would come out on top. However, stay tuned, I am sure one one of our tax experts can give you some insight.

My expertise is restricted to taxes in the United States, not Germany, so I cannot really provide reliable tax advice on this issue. Sorry!

Only 50km? I know people in Europe that commute much further than that daily.

While such commutes in Europe are not unprecedented, they ARE rather unusual, given the level of mass transit available in Europe these days.

Intra-city routes are cheap and frequent, Inter-city routes are significantly more expensive and infrequent. I have a condo there in Italy( I don't have a legally declared residence there however for tax reasons). Of the dozen people I know there that have trips 30k and up... most drive them because of that. One friend of 28 years, takes the train part of the time drives the rest of it, he's got a 95km commute each way daily. Livorno - Firenze, but that's because he and his wife inherited a significant (and really nice) property outside of town there from her parents..

Can't see how renting a place close to use the address is either cheaper or legal...knowing that you have to declare a legal residence in much of Europe with the government ..unlike in the USA. You would be more likely to get caught trying that...particularly in Germany where the powers that be, really have their act together more-so than other parts of Europe..