Restnutzungsdauer-Gutachten: can an Altbau qualify for higher annual AfA?

Sometimes. German tax law lets the owner of a rental building replace the fixed depreciation rate with one based on the building's shorter actual useful life, but only where that shorter life is shown for the specific building. A remaining-useful-life report (Restnutzungsdauer-Gutachten) is the usual evidence. Age alone does not qualify an older building (Altbau), the tax office decides whether to accept the report, and the higher rate brings deductions forward without increasing their total. In our single-apartment example, an accepted report recovers its fee in about one to three and a half years. A proposal now before parliament could close this route for most purchased buildings.

This guide covers privately held residential rentals. The depreciation schedule itself is in our AfA schedule guide.

Depreciation (Absetzung für Abnutzung, AfA) on a rental building normally follows the fixed rates in § 7(4) sentence 1 EStG. Sentence 2 lets you use the rate matching the building's actual useful life instead, if that life is below the threshold for its age group:

Useful life is the period in which the building can be expected to serve its purpose; for a building you bought, it runs from acquisition (§ 11c(1) EStDV). The buyer's question is therefore how many more years the building will be economically usable. The shorter life is an option; you may keep the statutory rate.

Statute. § 7(4) sentence 2 EStG says nothing about how the shorter life must be proved or who may prove it.

Case law. The Federal Fiscal Court (Bundesfinanzhof, BFH) has set the standard:

• IX R 25/19 (28 July 2021): any method suitable in the individual case may be used; a building-fabric survey (Bausubstanzgutachten) is not required.
• IX R 14/23 (23 January 2024): a report using the remaining-life method of the Property Valuation Ordinance (ImmoWertV) can be suitable, but simply referring to the model's standard total and remaining life is not enough. An expert assessment must deal with the individual building, such as modernisation carried out or maintenance neglected. The taxpayer bears the burden of proof, though the estimate needs only the greatest possible probability, not certainty.
• IX R 26/24 (7 October 2025): the court allowed 3.3 per cent instead of 2.5 per cent for a listed pre-1925 building, because a court-appointed expert had set its remaining life at 30 years after considering age, condition and modernisation. The dispute concerned the 2005 tax year.

Administrative guidance. A Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) letter of 22 February 2023 imposed stricter requirements, including limits on who could prepare reports. On 1 December 2025 the BMF withdrew it in full, giving no reasons (BMF). Its requirements are no longer administrative guidance. A draft rule restricting reports to publicly appointed and sworn valuers was dropped from an amending tax ordinance before the Bundesrat approved it in December 2025 (KPMG; Haufe). We found no newer BMF letter or BFH decision on the point up to 3 October 2026.

Proposed legislation. On 25 September 2026, the upper house of parliament (Bundesrat), commenting on the government's draft Annual Tax Act 2026 (Jahressteuergesetz 2026), proposed that sentence 2 should apply only where a building already had a shorter life when completed, such as a lightweight hall. Its stated aim is to stop such claims on purchased older buildings (Bundesrat printed paper 447/26 (Beschluss), item 6). This is a proposal, not law. The government's draft does not contain it, and the Bundestag decides the final text. Whether, when and to which purchases any change would apply is open, so check the status before commissioning a report.

Under the ImmoWertV, remaining useful life starts from the gap between a standard total life and the building's age, then adjusts for individual circumstances such as modernisation or neglected maintenance (§ 4(3) ImmoWertV). For a building from around 1900, age alone often exceeds the standard total life, so the result depends mostly on what was renewed and when. A building with a recently renewed roof, windows, heating and pipes may have a remaining life above the 40-year threshold, and then sentence 2 gives you nothing.

That is why the BFH rejected a bare reference to the model. A calculator that turns a completion year into a remaining life is not evidence about your building. Nor is its age.

A report that can support a claim usually:

• identifies the building, the unit and the valuation date (your acquisition date);
• documents the condition of building and unit, with photographs;
• lists modernisation and repairs by element and year, from records;
• explains the method and how technical wear, economic obsolescence and legal restrictions affect the result;
• states one remaining useful life, with reasoning;
• names the author and their qualification.

Neither the statute nor these BFH decisions prescribes an on-site inspection, but a report whose author has seen the building is easier to defend than one built on the owner's photographs.

A remaining-life report answers a tax question. It is not a pre-purchase building survey (checks before buying) or an energy assessment (energy certificates).

With no qualification prescribed, judging quality is your job. Useful markers are appointment as a publicly appointed and sworn valuer (öffentlich bestellter und vereidigter Sachverständiger) or certification for property valuation under DIN EN ISO/IEC 17024. The withdrawn BMF letter demanded one of these; today they are sensible checks, not legal conditions. Ask each provider:

• Is the building inspected inside and out, by video, or not at all?
• Which documents do you need, and what happens if records are incomplete?
• Will you answer tax-office questions, and at what cost?
• What exactly does any guarantee cover? A refund from the provider is not acceptance by the tax office.

Providers range from local valuers to online services. As one commercial provider example, Nutzungsdauer.com publishes remaining-useful-life assessment information, including its process and price list; its statements about savings or acceptance are its own. On 3 October 2026 it listed €946.05 including VAT for up to 299 m², plus €535.50 for an inside-and-outside inspection. Another provider listed €799, plus €499 for an on-site inspection of an apartment (gutachten-afa.de). Ask your tax adviser (Steuerberater) about their experience with your shortlisted provider.

The valuer will want plans, proof of the completion year, the modernisation history, the energy certificate and the owners' association (WEG) minutes and resolutions, which show what was renewed or deferred. If the apartment is let, an inspection needs the tenant's cooperation. All of this is easiest to gather while you are buying. Alpha Minoris's Buyer's Agent service can coordinate access to the property and collect existing documents, such as plans, modernisation records and WEG minutes, during a purchase in Berlin, Dresden or Leipzig; you need not live there. It does not prepare or certify reports, choose a useful life or give tax advice. Those stay with the valuer and your Steuerberater.

Illustrative example. Fictional figures, not a forecast or tax advice. A two-room apartment in a Leipzig building completed in 1908, refurbished throughout in 1997 (roof, windows, heating, pipes, wiring, bathrooms), with routine maintenance since. Acquired with transfer of benefits and burdens (Übergang von Nutzen und Lasten) on 1 January 2026, so 2026 is a full year; let throughout. Depreciable building basis €180,000 after excluding the land share (derivation in our AfA schedule guide). Statutory rate 2.5%. Two report outcomes are assumed: a remaining life of 30 years (report A) or 25 years (report B). Report fee €1,000 (desk-based) or €1,500 (with inspection), in line with the published prices above. Marginal income-tax rates of 30% and 42%; solidarity surcharge and church tax excluded. The fee is paid in 2026; each year's tax effect arrives with that year's assessment, the first in 2027.

If accepted, either report recovers its fee within about three and a half years. Five points decide whether that holds:

• No benefit. If the report finds 40 years or more, or the tax office rejects it and you do not pursue the claim, AfA stays at €4,500 and the fee is a cost.
• Partial acceptance. If the office accepts 30 years against a report stating 25, use the report A rows.
• Uncertainty. A 50 per cent chance of acceptance doubles each break-even: report A at 42 per cent with a €1,000 fee becomes about 3.2 years.
• Timing, not more relief. All three columns deduct €180,000 in total; report A ends ten years earlier. If you sell within the ten years in which a private sale is taxable, the extra AfA claimed (€15,000 under report A by year ten) raises the taxable gain by the same amount (§ 23(1) and (3) EStG).
• Law change. If a future change reached this purchase, only the years before it would count. Short break-evens carry less of that risk.

Depreciation is a deduction, not a payment; the saving arrives with the assessment. Whether the fee is itself deductible is for your adviser to confirm; the table uses the full fee.

You claim the shorter-life rate as building depreciation in the rental income form (Anlage V) and must be able to present the report; many advisers send it with the return. The tax office may accept it, ask questions or apply the statutory rate. You then have one month from notification of the assessment to lodge an objection (Einspruch) (§ 355(1) AO). Beyond that lies the finance court (Finanzgericht), which may commission its own expert, as in all three BFH cases above. That takes time and money.

Two points are easy to miss. A report's suitability and the tax office's acceptance are separate questions: a sound method can still be judged unconvincing on the facts. And a report does not automatically reopen earlier years; whether a past assessment can still be changed depends on its procedural status, so let your Steuerberater check before you count on any refund.

Plan renovation together with the report. Major modernisation can lengthen the remaining life, and early work may have to be capitalised under the 15 per cent rule.

• The building has been extensively modernised in recent years.
• Your marginal rate is low, or you have little income taxed in Germany for a rental loss to reduce.
• The building basis is small, for example because the land share is high (price allocation).
• You may sell within the ten-year period.
• The plan only works if the law stays as it is.

If an older building is on your shortlist, gather its modernisation history and WEG records early, and let your Steuerberater judge whether a report is worth it. Discuss your first rental property with Alpha Minoris.