How much is the second home tax in Berlin?

20 percent of the yearly net cold rent for tax years from 2025, up from 15 percent before. A flat at 600 euros cold a month costs 7,200 euros a year in rent and so 1,440 euros in second home tax. If you pay no rent, for example because you own the flat, the Finanzamt uses the Berlin Mietspiegel figure for a comparable flat instead.

Do I pay second home tax on a WG room in Berlin?

Yes, if the room is registered as your Nebenwohnung. Since 1 January 2025 the Berlin law taxes each person who shares a flat on their own portion: your own room plus an equal share of the rooms everyone uses. The change was made specifically so that subtenants, who were outside the tax before, now pay it too.

Do students have to pay Berlin second home tax?

Yes. Students with a Berlin flat or room registered as a second residence pay it like anyone else. The Berlin tax office points to a Bundesfinanzhof ruling of 17 February 2010, which confirmed that even a childhood bedroom at the parents' home can be the main residence that makes the Berlin room a taxable second home.

Can I just register my Berlin flat as my main residence?

Only if it is true. Under the federal registration law your main residence is the flat you mainly use, and for a married person or registered partner who is not separated it is the family's flat. If you really live in Berlin most of the time, registering it as your Hauptwohnung is correct and ends the tax at the end of the month before the change.

When does Berlin second home tax start and end?

It starts on the first day of the month after the flat becomes your Nebenwohnung, or that same day if it happens on the first. It ends on the last day of the month before the flat stops being your second home, unless the change falls on the last day of a month. The declaration is due by 31 May of the year it covers, or by the end of the month after the tax starts if that is later, and the yearly amount is due on 15 July.

Is there an exemption for couples who live apart for work?

Only for married couples and registered partners who are not separated. If you keep the Berlin flat for work and your shared home, which is your main residence, lies outside Berlin, the Berlin flat is not a taxable second home. Unmarried couples do not qualify. You still return the declaration the Finanzamt sends you, as a Negativerklärung, explaining why the flat is exempt.

Who collects the second home tax in Berlin?

The Finanzamt Mitte/Tiergarten is responsible for the whole city. It normally writes to you about a month after you register a second residence at a Bürgeramt, but the duty to file exists even if no letter arrives. It reassesses every third year, and if your rent goes down in between you can report it by 31 December to be taxed on the lower figure.

Second Home Tax in Berlin: Who Pays 20 Percent, and Why WG Rooms Now Count

Q: Does a flat abroad make my Berlin flat a second home?

No. The registration law only weighs flats inside Germany against each other. If your Berlin flat is the only one you have in Germany, it is your main residence here, whatever you keep in another country, and no second home tax arises on it.

Yusuf Ucuz

5 days ago

7 min read

It usually arrives about a month after a Bürgeramt appointment that felt finished. An envelope from the Finanzamt Mitte/Tiergarten, a form called Zweitwohnungsteuererklärung, and a deadline. Most people I know who got one had never heard the word before, and every one of them assumed it was a mistake.

It is not a mistake. Berlin taxes any flat that is registered as your second residence, your Nebenwohnung, and since 1 January 2025 it takes 20 percent of the net cold rent for it, up from 15. The same law change quietly pulled in people who were never caught before: subtenants and WG members who rent a room in someone else's flat.

Who actually pays the second home tax in Berlin

The rule sounds simple and catches people from four directions. If a flat in Berlin is registered as your Nebenwohnung and you actually use it, you owe the tax. Where your main residence is does not matter. It can be in Hamburg, in Potsdam, or two U-Bahn stops away in another Berlin flat.

The people it finds, in my experience:

The weekday commuter. A studio in Friedrichshain from Monday to Thursday, the real home in Brandenburg or further out
The couple with two leases. You mostly live at your partner's place and keep your own flat as the second address, or the other way round
The WG room with a home elsewhere. A room in a shared flat while your registered main address stays with your parents or your old city
The student. A 2010 Bundesfinanzhof ruling settled that even a childhood bedroom at your parents' house can be the main residence that turns your Berlin room into a taxable second home

What does not count: a room in a care home, a women's shelter, an allotment garden Laube, and a few other narrow cases. Letting the flat to someone else also takes it out of your hands, because then it is not serving your own needs.

A regional express train in yellow, white and green livery waiting at a platform inside the glass hall of Berlin Hauptbahnhof

The RE1 at Berlin Hauptbahnhof. A lot of Berlin second homes exist because someone rides a train like this one home on Thursday night.

How the 20 percent is calculated

The base is the Nettokaltmiete, the rent without heating and service charges, for twelve months. The rules are set out in the Berlin tax administration's own FAQ and on the service.berlin.de page for the tax. The Finanzamt takes the rent for the first full month and multiplies it. If you pay no rent, because you own the flat or a relative lets you live there, it uses the Berlin Mietspiegel figure for a comparable flat instead.

A 45 square metre studio at 600 euros cold is 7,200 euros a year, so 1,440 euros of second home tax. Under the old 15 percent rate that was 1,080. The rise alone is 360 euros a year for doing nothing different.

The WG rule is the new part. Since 2025, section 2 of the Berlin law says that when several people share a flat, each one is taxed on their own portion. Your portion is your own room plus an equal slice of the kitchen, bathroom and hall. Say the whole flat is 82 square metres at 1,100 euros cold, your room is 16 square metres, and three of you share 24 square metres of common space. Your share is 16 plus 8, so 24 square metres, which carries about 322 euros of the rent. At 20 percent that is 64 euros a month, 773 euros a year, for a room most people never thought of as a second home.

The Senate's own bill put a number on why this changed. It expected about 10.1 million euros a year in extra revenue, roughly half from the higher rate and half from the wider definition. It also said the real goal was to push people into registering Berlin as their main residence, because every main resident brings Berlin more money through the revenue sharing between the German states.

The dates that decide the bill

Three small rules decide how much you pay in the first and last year, and they are the ones people get wrong.

It starts on the first of the next month. Register your Nebenwohnung on 15 October and the tax runs from 1 November. Register on 1 October and it runs from that day.

It stops at the end of the month before. Re-register the flat as your main residence, or move out, on 20 March and the last taxable month is February. If the change falls on the last day of a month, that month still counts.

The declaration and the payment run on their own clock. The form is due by 31 May of the year it covers, or by the end of the month after the tax began if that is later. So a flat that becomes taxable on 1 November needs its declaration by 31 December. The yearly amount then falls due in one payment on 15 July. In your first year, when July has already passed, you pay within a month of the notice.

After that the Finanzamt only recalculates every third year. If your rent goes down in between, you can report it by 31 December of that year and get the lower figure early. Nobody reports rent going up, and nobody needs to.

A plain modern office building housing a Berlin Buergeramt on Hohenzollerndamm, with a lawn in front

The Bürgeramt on Hohenzollerndamm. The tax follows what you register at a counter like this one, not what your lease says.

The only real way out is where you actually live

Here is the part that matters most, and the part people try to game.

You cannot pick your main residence to save tax. Under the federal registration law, your Hauptwohnung is the flat you mainly use. For someone married or in a registered partnership who is not separated, it is the family's flat. The Finanzamt is bound by what the registration office has on file, but the registration office is supposed to reflect reality, and "I sleep here five nights a week" is reality.

So there are really only two honest answers:

You live in Berlin most of the time. Then Berlin is your main residence and it should be registered that way. Change it at a Bürgeramt and the tax ends with the month before the change. If your old main address is somewhere you barely go now, this is the move, and it probably should have happened a while ago.
Your life really is somewhere else. Then the Berlin flat is a second home and the tax is the price of it. Budget it every July, check that the rent on the declaration is the net cold rent and not the warm one, and check the WG split if you share.

One nuance worth knowing if you split your life between Berlin and another country. The registration law only compares flats inside Germany. If your Berlin flat is the only one you have in Germany, it is your main residence here, whatever you keep abroad, and there is nothing to tax.

Two yellow Deutsche Post letter boxes on metal posts at a street corner in Alt-Mariendorf at night

The form comes by post about a month after you register. Not getting one does not end the duty to file it.

The exemption most couples miss

There is exactly one lifestyle exemption, and it is narrow.

If you are married or in a registered civil partnership, not separated, and you keep the Berlin flat for work while your shared home is your main residence outside Berlin, the Berlin flat is not a taxable second home. That covers the classic case of someone commuting to a Berlin job from a family house in Brandenburg or another state.

Two catches. It does not cover unmarried couples, however long they have been together. And it is not automatic: you still fill in the form the Finanzamt sends you, as a Negativerklärung, and explain why the flat is exempt. Ignoring the letter because you are exempt can leave you arguing with an estimated assessment instead.

If the flat is your second home anyway, the Rundfunkbeitrag is the other bill to look at. You can be released from paying it twice, but only on application. I covered that in the Berlin Rundfunkbeitrag guide.

A lit doorway of a Berlin apartment building in Friedenau at night, with snow on the front garden hedges and the path

An old apartment house in Friedenau. Which of the two doors you call home decides a bill that can pass 1,000 euros a year.

What I would do this week

Open whatever you registered at the Bürgeramt. If one Berlin flat is listed as a Nebenwohnung, you are either paying this already or you owe it.

Then ask one honest question: where do I sleep most nights? If the answer is Berlin, book a Bürgeramt appointment and switch the registration. If the answer is somewhere else, put the tax into the ledger above with your real rent and your real dates, so the July bill is a number you planned for rather than a letter you argue with. And if you are married and commuting for work, send the form back as a Negativerklärung before the deadline.

I write up this kind of Berlin rule once a week, the ones that quietly changed and what they cost, before they land on anyone's doormat. If that is useful, the signup sits just below.