Rental: Travel to rental property usually fully deductible

Landlords must regularly travel to their rental properties, whether for inspections, repairs, viewings, or other reasons. According to Section 9 (3) of the Income Tax Act, similar rules apply to these journeys in connection with rental income as for employees commuting to work.

Landlords can usually claim the business travel allowance of 0.30 Euro per kilometre travelled as business expenses. The Federal Fiscal Court has ruled that landlords can generally use this regulation.

The exception is if the rental property is considered the landlord's regular place of work. In this case, the commuting allowance of 0.30 Euro per kilometre applies. A landlord has a regular place of work at the rental property if they visit it not only occasionally but with a certain regularity and frequency. An example is a landlord who visits their construction sites almost daily.

The Cologne Fiscal Court has also made a decision on this matter. A landlord's place of work is where they perform at least one-third of their activities. Travel costs between different rental properties are not considered journeys to the first place of work but as journeys between two first places of work.

If you partially construct a building yourself and travel to the construction site, the travel costs are part of the building's construction costs and cannot be settled with the commuting allowance. Instead, the business travel allowance of 30 cents per kilometre travelled or the actual costs apply (BFH ruling of 10.5.1995, IX R 73/91).