Is building insurance tax deductible in Germany?

German building insurance premiums and the tax effect they can produce at most, using the same figures as our German page.

Building insurance (Wohngebäudeversicherung) protects a thing, namely your house. German income tax only recognises a limited set of insurance premiums as Vorsorgeaufwendungen, and those cover people: health, long term care, accident, liability. Insuring bricks is not on that list.

The second reason is simpler. A home you live in yourself produces no taxable income, and without income there can be no income-related expenses. For most owners the question ends right there. We would rather say that plainly than send you looking for a form that does not exist.

If you rent the house or flat out, the premium is fully deductible against your rental income (Einkünfte aus Vermietung und Verpachtung). What matters is the year you actually paid, not the year the cover runs for. Pay in December for the following year and the amount still belongs in the December year.

On the 2025 Anlage V form the item sits in the Werbungskosten block under passed-on costs. Lines 73 to 75 list property tax, street cleaning, refuse collection, water, heating and Hausversicherungen (building insurances). The line number shifts almost every year, the collective item does not. Look for the word Hausversicherungen rather than for a fixed line.

Section 2 no. 13 of the Betriebskostenverordnung lets landlords pass on the cost of property and liability insurance. It names cover for the building against fire, storm, water and other natural hazards, glass cover and liability cover for the building, the oil tank and the lift.

In tax terms the two sides usually cancel out, but not by themselves. What tenants repay goes in as income from passed-on service charges, the premium you pay goes in as an expense. Both figures belong in the return. Netting them off and reporting only the difference is not an accepted shortcut.

If a room in your own home qualifies as a häusliches Arbeitszimmer (home study) and is the centre of your entire professional activity, you may deduct running building costs pro rata, building insurance included. The split is by area: 15 square metres out of 150 gives you 10 percent of the premium.

If you take the flat annual amount of 1,260 euros instead of actual costs, everything is settled with it and the insurance does not come on top. The same applies to the daily allowance of 6 euros for each day worked from home, capped at 1,260 euros a year. Both figures are set out in section 4 paragraph 5 sentence 1 nos. 6b and 6c of the Einkommensteuergesetz (income tax act).

Letting only part of the building, for example a granny flat, follows the same logic. Anlage V asks for the total living area and for the part you use yourself or let others use free of charge. That gives you the percentage you may claim. A floor plan with measurements is enough as proof.

Your premium already contains 19 percent insurance tax, the general rate under section 6 paragraph 1 of the Versicherungsteuergesetz. Pure fire cover and fire business interruption cover carry 22 percent. Building insurance stays at 19 percent, with a separate rule for how the fire element is measured.

You cannot reclaim that tax. Where the property is let it is simply part of the premium you paid and travels with it into your deductible expenses. It never becomes a separate line, and residential letting carries no input VAT recovery either.

If you live in the house and have no recognised home study, the matter is closed. There is no box that fits the policy and no allowance that absorbs it. That is unsatisfying, but it is the honest answer.

A look at the contract itself pays better. Older policies often lack natural hazard cover, the sum insured no longer matches the building, or the premium has crept up for years while the cover stood still. The money at stake there is usually far larger than anything tax could return.