Let your employer pay, and pay no tax on it
Employer-funded training in Germany is income-tax-free for you under § 3 Nr. 19 EStG and fully deductible for the company. There is no application, no waiting period and no authority involved: your employer books the bootcamp and we invoice them. It is the simplest funding route there is.
What § 3 Nr. 19 EStG means in practice
Every other funding route on this site has a gatekeeper: an agency, a form, a decision you have to wait for. This one has none. Your employer buys the training, Code Labs Academy invoices the company like any other supplier, and you start with your cohort. What makes it more than a favour is the tax treatment. Since 2019, training your employer pays for has been explicitly income-tax-free for you under § 3 Nr. 19 of the Einkommensteuergesetz, as long as it improves your employability: it is not a geldwerter Vorteil, it does not show up on your payslip, and no Lohnsteuer is due on it. For the company the invoice is an ordinary, fully deductible Betriebsausgabe. On a bootcamp costing between EUR 5,000 and EUR 17,000 that combination matters: your employer spends pre-tax money, and you receive the full value of the course rather than a taxed benefit. There is no accreditation requirement anywhere in this route. When a company pays from its own budget it is simply buying a service, so nothing about a provider's certification is checked. Two honest caveats. First, the decision belongs entirely to the person who controls the budget. No page, and no adviser, can promise you a yes. Second, this route pays for the training, not for your time; time off is a separate conversation, and our part-time formats are built so that it rarely needs to be a difficult one. Everything below is written to be forwarded: the eligibility facts, the email you can send today, and the documents your finance department will ask for.
Anyone employed in Germany can ask. There is no form, no authority and no eligibility test: no nationality, residence or minimum-service condition, because this is your employer's money and your employer's decision. What you are asking for is a purchase, not a benefit you qualify for.
The tax exemption has one substantive condition: the training has to serve your employability (Beschäftigungsfähigkeit). In other words, it must be in the employer's overwhelming operational interest rather than a reward for work you have already done. A tech bootcamp that closes a skills gap the company actually has clears that bar comfortably; a course handed out as a disguised bonus does not.
It does not have to be for your current job description. § 3 Nr. 19 EStG covers training that improves general employability, so a marketing analyst moving toward data science or a support engineer learning Cybersecurity is squarely within scope.
Your company has to be the customer. The offer and the invoice are made out to the company and paid by the company. Paying the fee yourself and asking to be reimbursed later is a different transaction with a different tax treatment, so it is much cleaner to have the company order the course in the first place.
No accreditation gate whatsoever. Because no public money is involved, nobody checks whether the provider is certified. Code Labs Academy's AZAV Träger- und Maßnahmenzulassung is irrelevant on this route. It only becomes relevant if your employer later applies for state co-funding.
Self-employed or a company owner? You are your own employer. The course fee is then generally a Betriebsausgabe for your business rather than a § 3 Nr. 19 case. The details depend on your legal form, so confirm it with your Steuerberater before you budget for it.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to pay tax on a course my employer buys for me?
In Germany, no. Under § 3 Nr. 19 EStG, further training funded by your employer is income-tax-free when it improves your employability. It is not treated as a geldwerter Vorteil, so it does not appear on your payslip and no Lohnsteuer is due. The condition is that the training serves the employer's operational interest rather than functioning as a reward for work already performed, and that the invoice is issued to and paid by the company. For the employer the same amount is a deductible business expense. Before you quote numbers in a proposal, ask payroll to confirm how they will book it. It is a routine question for them and it removes the last bit of hesitation.
What if my employer says no?
Ask for the reason in one sentence, because the three common reasons have different answers. If it is timing, the budget round is the real gate: ask to be pencilled in for the next planning cycle and pick a later intake. We start cohorts several times a year, so the date can follow the money. If it is retention, offer a Fortbildungsvereinbarung before they ask for one. If it is relevance, come back with the module list mapped onto your team's actual backlog. And if it stays a no, the bootcamp is still reachable: we offer interest-free monthly instalments paid directly to Code Labs Academy and a discount for paying the full fee upfront. If you become unemployed or your job is at risk, the Bildungsgutschein is a different route entirely and worth looking at.
Will I have to pay the money back if I leave the company?
Only if you signed something that says so. For larger amounts many German employers ask for a Fortbildungsvereinbarung with a repayment clause: leave within an agreed binding period and you repay a share that gets smaller every month. That is normal, and it is often exactly what makes a big yes possible. Treat it as the contract it is. In outline, the agreement should be in writing before the course starts, the binding period should be proportionate to how long and how expensive the training is, the repayable amount should reduce month by month, and repayment generally cannot be demanded when the employment ends for reasons on the employer's side. Those limits come from case law, so have the wording checked rather than relying on a summary. We provide the enrolment confirmation, the hours and the completion certificate that the agreement can refer to.
Does a live online bootcamp count, and do you need any accreditation for this?
It counts, and no accreditation is needed. When your employer pays from its own funds, this is an ordinary purchase from a supplier. Nobody audits the provider, and the delivery format is the company's choice. Code Labs Academy is a German company and issues a proper invoice to the company, and our classes are live and instructor-led at fixed times rather than a self-paced video library, which is usually the point HR actually cares about. Accreditation only enters the picture when public money does: we hold AZAV Träger- und Maßnahmenzulassung, which is what makes our courses eligible under the Qualifizierungschancengesetz or a Bildungsgutschein.
Can my employer get part of the cost back from the state?
Possibly, and it is worth raising, but as a bonus, not as a condition. Under the Qualifizierungschancengesetz (§ 82 SGB III) the Bundesagentur für Arbeit reimburses 25% to 100% of course costs for employed workers depending on company size, with an additional subsidy towards wages for training time. The trade-off is real: the employer has to file an application with the Arbeitgeber-Service before the course starts (around six weeks of lead time), the measure has to exceed 120 hours, and the provider has to hold AZAV certification. We meet the provider conditions, but the decision is the Bundesagentur's, case by case, and there is no retroactive approval once a course has begun. § 3 Nr. 19 EStG, by contrast, needs no application at all, which is why we suggest building the proposal on the tax treatment and treating the reimbursement as the upgrade.
Can I claim the course on my own tax return as well?
No, and it is better that way. Werbungskosten are expenses you have borne yourself, so if the employer pays the fee tax-free there is nothing left for you to deduct. Trying to claim it anyway is a straightforward error the Finanzamt will pick up. Where it does become relevant is a split arrangement: if the company covers part of the fee and you pay the rest out of your own pocket, your share is generally deductible as job-related training costs. See our page on deducting training costs as Werbungskosten for how that works.
Get Personalized Financing Advice
Looking for personalised guidance on financing options or need advice tailored to your unique situation? Book a one-on-one consultation with our education specialists. Whether you’re exploring Code Labs Academy discounts, government funding (such as Bildungsgutscheine or QCG in Germany), loans or employer sponsorship, our experts are here to help. Get tailored advice that aligns with your goals and circumstances. Schedule a call today and take the first step toward securing your future in tech. Our specialists will help you understand which options may apply; final funding decisions are always made by the relevant authorities.
