Abschreibung, in the tax context usually called Absetzung für Abnutzung, is the rule that a device used over several years is not deducted in one go. The purchase price enters the accounts as an asset and is then written down in instalments across the period the device is expected to serve, so each year carries a share of the cost rather than the first year carrying all of it.
The effect on the first year is the part owners notice. Paying for equipment out of the bank account and finding that most of the payment does not reduce the taxable result of that year feels wrong until the mechanism is clear. Cash left the business at once, the deduction arrives in slices, and the two are simply not the same event. That is also why a heavy investment year can show a solid Betriebsergebnis and a strained bank balance at the same time.
How long the write down runs is not a matter of judgement. The useful life applied comes from the official depreciation tables published by the tax administration, and those tables are revised, so the period that applied to a device bought some years ago is not necessarily the period that applies to one bought now. Items of low value are treated differently again, with simplified options that let smaller purchases be written off faster or immediately, and the boundaries for those options move as well. This is exactly the sort of detail the Steuerberater settles, and it should be settled before the device is ordered rather than at the year end.
Two neighbouring questions get mixed into this one. The first is whether the device is bought at all, since the alternative described under Leasing oder Kauf von Laborgeräten changes the treatment entirely. The second is whether part of the deduction can be pulled forward into a year before the purchase, which is the mechanism covered under Investitionsabzugsbetrag. Neither one changes what the device costs. They change the year in which the tax effect lands, which is a different thing and worth keeping separate in the conversation.
For a pharmacy running a priced service, the practical consequence is in the monthly reporting. If the device sits in one asset line and the write down runs into a general cost account, the service looks cheaper to operate than it is. Booking the annual charge against the service in the Betriebswirtschaftliche Auswertung is what makes the equipment share of the cost per appointment visible while there is still time to act on it.
This glossary entry is general information about German pharmacy law and practice. It is not legal advice. For binding guidance on your own pharmacy, contact your Landesapothekerkammer.
