Germany's €110 tax-free allowance applies per employee, per company event, up to twice a calendar year, and stays free of income tax and social security up to that limit. The threshold counts gross, including VAT, and covers every shared cost of the event: food, drinks, room hire, music, entertainment, shuttle, decoration, and the workshop itself. Payroll divides the total cost by the people actually present, and a plus-one's share gets added to the invited employee's own allowance. The event also has to be open to the whole company or a clearly defined part of it, otherwise the allowance doesn't apply at all. Go over the limit and only the excess stays taxable, which the company can then tax at a flat 25%. In practice: if you want to keep a team event under this threshold, add up the whole afternoon, not just the workshop price. These figures come from German administrative tax practice, not from tax advice we're giving you.
What the allowance actually covers, and what it doesn't
The allowance thinks in terms of the whole afternoon, not line items. If you look at room, catering, decoration, and workshop as separate bills, you miss the point of the rule: every shared cost of the event gets added up and divided by the number of people actually there. Bring a plus-one, and their share still lands on the invited employee, not on the guest. If you calculate with the workshop's entry price of €79 and assume that automatically keeps you under €110, you're missing room hire, catering, and travel costs for the other guests, which all flow into the same total. Book, say, a workshop at €99 per person and add a room, drinks, and music, and the total per head can slide past €110 even though the workshop alone stayed well under it. The allowance caps the whole event, not a discount on individual line items. Know that going in, and you plan the extras from day one instead of finding them on the final invoice.
The open-to-everyone rule also has a direct consequence for the guest list. Deliberately leave out a department or specific colleagues because the budget is tight, and the event no longer qualifies as a favoured company event at all. If you want your outing classified that way, invite the whole company or a clearly defined part of it, say a full department, not a hand-picked selection from it. If a company has already used the allowance for the Christmas party, only one of the two favoured events remains for a company outing in the same year; anything beyond that counts as regular taxable pay.
What the price tiers mean for your budget
The workshop price drops as the group grows, because travel, setup, and supervision happen once regardless of whether ten or a hundred people stand at the wall. For the graffiti workshop: 10 to 15 people pay €129 per head, 16 to 25 pay €109, 26 to 50 pay €99, 51 to 100 pay €89, from 101 people it's €79, all net plus VAT. From 251 people, we calculate individually. Action painting follows the same descending logic but starts at a minimum of 15 people. We don't take on groups under ten; a different format suits smaller teams better. For the allowance calculation, that means: the bigger the team, the more room is left for venue and catering before the €110 line even comes into view. How far that scales also depends on the format: graffiti stays bookable up to 1,000 people, action painting up to 500. For very large outings, the graffiti workshop is usually the more practical choice; for small and mid-sized groups, the two formats mostly differ in surface and location, not in how the pricing is built. As a reference point: at 30 people, the graffiti workshop runs €99 per head. Keep venue, catering, and the rest of the extras under €11 per person, and the whole event fits under the €110 line on paper.
What a graffiti or action painting workshop brings to your outing
Group size: The graffiti workshop runs from 10 up to 1,000 people, action painting from 15 up to 500. Both formats scale with the team instead of forcing a fixed headcount.
Duration: A session runs 2 to 3 hours, regardless of group size, because every group works at the same time instead of taking turns at the wall.
Included in the price: Travel, material transport, all paint and supplies, floor and surface protection, on-site supervision, and the permit for the legal wall are all baked in, no separate line item on the invoice.
Format difference: The graffiti workshop only ever runs outdoors on a legal wall, under a roof or bridge if it rains, never on canvas and never indoors. Action painting works on canvas, so it runs indoors just as well as outdoors.
Language: The briefing runs in English at no extra charge, including for mixed teams with international colleagues.
Booking: A binding quote just needs headcount and preferred date; you'll hear back within 24 hours. Usual lead time is one to two weeks, and the fastest we've ever pulled it together was 48 hours.
Cancellation: Cancel up to 30 days before the date and it's free. After that, the full amount is due.
What helps you get internal sign-off
Getting a company outing approved usually takes more than a good programme; it takes numbers finance or leadership can check against. The fixed price tiers help twice over: they show instantly what a team of a given size costs, without waiting on an individual quote, and they line up directly against the €110 threshold. You get a confirmation within 24 hours once headcount and date are set, which cuts down the internal back-and-forth. And because a cancellation stays free up to 30 days out, you can book the workshop before the final headcount is locked in, with no financial risk if the group size still shifts.
How a session runs
Wordsmithing the graffiti piece fits around the schedule: smaller teams often brainstorm right at the wall in small groups, while larger teams tend to bring their words or motifs from the office beforehand, so the on-site time goes entirely to spraying. After a short briefing on can technique and safety distance, you take over, and each group works its own section of the wall. How many small groups form depends on headcount and the wall space on site, not on a fixed formula. No prior experience needed. The mural stays up where that's possible, and where it can, you also get a drone shot of the whole group in front of their work, ready to reuse for internal comms or your next recruiting post. Taking a piece home is possible, but it's not the standard outcome of the format.
This isn't tax advice
The figures on the €110 allowance in this article come from the German Federal Ministry of Finance's wage tax guidance and the practice of the German chambers of industry and commerce (IHK), not from tax advice we're giving you. Whether your specific event meets the requirements, and how the costs get allocated correctly in your case, is best clarified with your accountant before you lock in the budget. We also can't say anything about how our own invoices are treated for tax purposes; that depends on your bookkeeping and your specific case. This article doesn't replace a consultation. It just walks through what publicly available sources say on the topic.
FAQ
How often a year does the allowance apply?
Up to two company events per calendar year can qualify under the €110 rule. A third event in the same year loses the benefit for that event.
Do plus-ones count?
Yes. A plus-one's share of the cost gets added to the invited employee's own allowance, not the guest's, which fills up that employee's personal allowance accordingly.
What happens if we go over €110?
Only the amount over the line becomes taxable; it doesn't make the whole event taxable. The company can tax that excess at a flat 25%.
Does our workshop price count toward the allowance?
Yes, the workshop is one of the shared costs of the event. Whether the total stays under €110 only gets decided once room, catering, and everything else are added in, not from the workshop price alone.
Your next step
Plan the outing around the tax question, not just the programme, and budget sign-off usually moves faster. Price tiers, duration, and the 24-hour confirmation all line up directly against the €110 threshold before you've even set a date. All team events in Hamburg show prices, formats, and group sizes at a glance, and you can send your request straight from the form on that page.
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