Selling: The 10-Year Clock and What AfA Does to the Gain

The Spekulationsfrist

Under § 23 EStG a private property sale is taxable only if fewer than ten years separate acquisition and disposal. Both dates are the obligatorisches Rechtsgeschäft - the notarised contract dates, not handover or payment. Sell one day past the ten years and the entire gain is tax-free.

The AfA sting inside the window

The taxable gain is not simply sale price minus purchase price. § 23 Abs. 3 Satz 4 EStG reduces your acquisition costs by all AfA already claimed. Eight years of €2,769 AfA is €22,152 added straight onto the gain, taxed at your marginal rate. A flat sold at break-even in year eight can still generate a five-figure tax bill.

The mirror image is the point that matters: after ten years there is no clawback at all. Every euro of AfA taken is kept permanently and the gain is untaxed. That asymmetry is why an aggressive Restnutzungsdauer is most attractive when you intend to hold past ten years.

A Freigrenze of €1,000 per year covers all private disposals combined (raised from €600 for 2024 onwards). It is a threshold, not an allowance: €1,001 makes the whole gain taxable.

The owner-occupancy exception

A sale inside ten years is still tax-free if the property was used zu eigenen Wohnzwecken either throughout the holding period, or in the year of sale and the two preceding calendar years (§ 23 Abs. 1 Nr. 1 Satz 3 EStG). Those are calendar years, so roughly 14 months of genuine occupation spanning three of them can suffice.

The 3-object rule

Sell more than three objects within about five years of acquiring them and you risk gewerblicher Grundstückshandel. Consequences: Gewerbesteuer, all gains taxed as business income, the ten-year exemption gone, and properties held as Umlaufvermögen so no AfA at all. Each condominium counts as one object; inherited and genuinely self-used properties generally do not. One flat is far from the line - just remember it before flat number four.

Not tax advice - model any exit with a Steuerberater well before you list.