Who actually needs a charging cost app?

Who is it for then?

LadeKosten is designed for two core audiences:

1. Freelancers and self-employed professionals: IT consultants, architects, tradespeople, coaches, tax advisors — anyone with an EV as a business asset or who bills business trips with their private EV. Charging costs are business expenses that reduce taxable income. But only if they're documented.
2. Employees with company cars: Sales reps, field staff, executives — anyone who charges their electric company car at home can get the electricity costs reimbursed tax-free by their employer. But the employer needs proof of actual consumption.

Both groups face the same problem: You charge at home (or on the road), and someone else — the tax office or your employer — wants to see receipts.

What changed in 2026?

Until the end of 2025, it was simple: Anyone who charged their company car at home received a monthly flat rate — €70 for fully electric vehicles without employer charging, €30 with. No proof required.

Since January 1, 2026, this flat rate is history. Instead, actual electricity consumption must be documented — either with the individual electricity rate or via the new electricity price flat rate of €0.34/kWh.

This means: Every single charging session must be documented. kWh values, date, time. GoBD-compliant. For details on the new regulation, check our article on the 2026 flat rate changes.

The scenario: Solar panels + own house

The most common question we hear: "I have solar panels and charge at home. Do I need the app?"

The answer depends on whether you use the car for business:

• Private only + solar panels: No, you don't need documentation. Your electricity, your car, your business.
• Company car + solar panels: Yes — and you actually benefit twice. The electricity price flat rate of €0.34/kWh applies regardless of your actual electricity costs. If your solar electricity costs only 8-10 cents per kWh, but you can claim 34 cents per kWh, the difference is real money.
• Self-employed + solar panels: The app is worth it here too. You can claim €0.34/kWh as a business expense — even if your actual electricity price is significantly lower.

Example calculation

Let's take a concrete case: Thomas is a freelance IT consultant, drives a Tesla Model 3, and has solar panels on his roof. His actual electricity costs are about 8 cents per kWh (solar + residual grid share).

Thomas charges an average of 250 kWh per month at home.

• Actual electricity costs: 250 kWh × €0.08 = €20 per month
• Deductible with flat rate: 250 kWh × €0.34 = €85 per month
• Tax savings (at 42% marginal tax rate): €85 × 0.42 = €35.70 per month
• Net benefit per year: (€85 - €20) × 12 × 0.42 = €327.60

For from €7.99 per year, Thomas documents every charging session automatically and saves over €300 in taxes. That's an ROI of over 3,000%.

Important: Without correct documentation, Thomas can't deduct anything. Then the €327.60 stays with the tax office.

Second example: Employee with company car

Sarah is a sales director at a mid-sized company and drives a VW ID.4 as a company car. She has a wallbox in her garage and no access to her employer's charging infrastructure. Her electricity rate is 32 cents per kWh.

Sarah charges an average of 300 kWh per month.

• Reimbursement with flat rate: 300 kWh × €0.34 = €102 per month tax-free
• Actual electricity costs: 300 kWh × €0.32 = €96 per month
• Net benefit per month: €102 - €96 = €6
• Additionally: The entire €102 per month is tax-free — Sarah saves income tax on this amount

Under the old system, Sarah would have received only €70 per month. With the new system and 300 kWh charging volume, she gets €102 — that's €384 more per year. The prerequisite: complete documentation of every single charging session.

What happens without an app?

In theory, you can document your charging sessions manually — with Excel, a notebook, or a custom spreadsheet. In practice, this fails for several reasons:

Gaps in documentation: You forget a charging session, enter it three weeks later — and violate the GoBD requirement for timely recording. The GoBD allows a maximum of 10 days. Anyone who enters charging sessions only at the end of the month risks having deductions denied during a tax audit.

No immutability: An Excel file can be edited at any time. The tax office does not accept such a file as audit-proof documentation — there's no audit trail showing when each entry was created.

No standardized format: Your tax advisor works with DATEV. Your custom spreadsheet needs to be manually typed in — costing time and money. With an automatic DATEV export, you save both yourself and your advisor this work.

No business/private separation: Without clear labeling in a system that enforces this separation, the assignment of many charging sessions quickly becomes chaotic.

Fleet operators and small businesses

Besides individuals, there's a third group for whom a charging cost app is increasingly relevant: small businesses with multiple EVs.

A trades company with three electric vans, a home care service with five EVs, a tax advisory firm with two company cars — charging costs accumulate everywhere and must be documented. The more vehicles, the faster manual documentation becomes unmanageable.

For these scenarios, LadeKosten offers the ability to manage multiple vehicles and export charging costs per license plate. Each vehicle maintains its own clean documentation — without anyone needing to maintain a central Excel file.

The cost advantage becomes even clearer with fleets: if a business charges five vehicles at 200 kWh per month each at home, that's 5 × 200 × €0.34 × 12 = €4,080 in deductible business expenses per year. At a 30% tax rate, that's a real saving of over €1,200. Without an app? Without documentation? Then those €1,200 are gone.

The wallbox scenario: Automatic instead of manual

Many business EV users already have a wallbox installed — whether a go-e Charger, Easee, or another model. The wallbox already measures consumption in kWh automatically. So why not use this data directly?

This is exactly where LadeKosten's wallbox integration comes in. With supported wallboxes (currently go-e Charger Home and Gemini), the app automatically detects the wallbox on the local WiFi and captures charging data without any manual effort. No reading meters, no typing, no forgotten entries.

The benefit goes beyond convenience: automatic data transfer fulfills the GoBD principle of accuracy better than any manual entry. The wallbox measures — the app documents. No room for estimates or rounding errors.

For wallboxes without direct integration, manual recording still works fine. You enter the kWh and date after each charging session — in under 30 seconds.

Checklist: Do you need a charging cost app?

Answer these five questions to find out if LadeKosten is relevant for you:

1. Do you use your EV for business? (As a freelancer, self-employed professional, or with a company car) → If yes: documentation has been mandatory since 2026.
2. Do you regularly charge at home? → If yes: you need proof of consumed kWh.
3. Do you want to claim charging costs for tax purposes or get reimbursed by your employer? → If yes: no deduction without GoBD-compliant documentation.
4. Do you have a wallbox with an MID-compliant meter? → If yes: the hardware is there, you just need the software for documentation.
5. Do you work with a tax advisor? → If yes: the DATEV export saves both of you time and money.

If you answered at least three of these questions with yes, LadeKosten is the right solution for you. 14 days free, then from €7.99 per year.