Your advertising costs

Management costs, property tax and other advertising costs. We reveal how and to what extent you can offset these against the tax.

Interest on debt

This is understood to mean financing costs that arise from loan interest from a home loan or mortgage loan.

Attention: If only one spouse is the owner of the rented property, important details must be observed so that the fiction officer actually fully recognizes the deduction of the interest on the debt. If you prove to the tax office that the owner's spouse paid the interest on the debt from his own resources (e.g. from the rental income), a tax deduction is still an option.

Maintenance expenses

These are costs for repairs and the replacement of existing building parts. Since 1999, however, there has been no option for cost allocation over two to five years.

Attention: Legislators consider larger expenses, such as for add-ons, to be production costs because something new and not yet available has been created. These expenses are not immediately deductible, but can only be claimed via depreciation (deduction for wear and tear).

Management costs

They are fully tax deductible if they cannot be passed on to the tenant.

Other advertising costs: administration costs, costs for rental advertisements, property tax, insurance contributions and contributions to home and landowners' associations.

Deduction for wear and tear (depreciation)

The tax office takes into account the proportion of the building, not the property. For an existing property, you can depreciate 2 percent of the building costs per year for 50 years (construction before 1925: 40 years 2.5 percent). The following applies to new buildings: 5 percent per year in the first 8 years, a further 6 years 2.5 percent per year and the remaining 36 years with 1.25 percent per year. (Please note: changes are planned.)

In this post you read:

• How to cut payments to the Treasury
• Your advertising costs
• When renting pays off
• Check first, then buy