Are my mortgage payments tax-deductible?

In Germany, the interest paid on your mortgage for own-use properties isn’t tax-deductible.

Here is an in-depth article on taxes for residential buyers.

If you buy an investment property and rent it out as a so-called landlord, then interest payments on your mortgage are tax deductible. More generally, you can deduct all expenses resulting from generating rental income against your income. This includes not just interest expenses as well as costs for maintenance and repairs. You can also deduct a depreciation allowance. This allowance is:

• 2,5% for properties built before 1925

• 2% for properties built from 1925 to 2022

• 3% for properties built form January 1, 2023 on.

This depreciation is based on the purchase price including purchase fees. You have to deduct the proportion you paid for the land value. So if you paid 300.000 Euro for a property build in 2010 and the land value is 50.000 Euro you can deduct 2% of 250.000 Euro = 5.000 Euro from your taxable income. You can do this for 50 years. The 2,5% depreciation you can take for 40 years,

On new built rental properties that meet special energy efficiency standards the depreciation rate is substantially higher.

Here is an in-depth article on depreciation allowances for potential landlords. It includes a grpah that shows you your income tax rates, depending on how high your income is.