Add Up Your Berlin Second Home Tax, Month by Month
Berlin taxes a flat or a WG room registered as your Nebenwohnung at 20 percent of its net cold rent, and since 2025 subtenants and shared-flat rooms count too. Put in the rent, your own room and the shared rooms, then the day it became your second address, and this adds up every month the Finanzamt will bill and marks each 15 July due date.
Rules from the Berliner Zweitwohnungsteuergesetz as amended from 1 January 2025 (Abgeordnetenhaus Drucksache 19/2052), the Berlin tax administration’s Zweitwohnungsteuer FAQ and the service.berlin.de entry for the tax. Read on 24 September 2026. An estimate, not tax advice; the Finanzamt Mitte/Tiergarten sets the real figure.
The letter usually arrives about a month after a Bürgeramt appointment that felt finished: the Finanzamt Mitte/Tiergarten wants a Zweitwohnungsteuererklärung. Berlin taxes any flat registered as your Nebenwohnung at 20 percent of the net cold rent, wherever your main residence is, and since 2025 that also covers a room in someone else’s flat, taxed on your own room plus an equal share of the kitchen, bathroom and hall. The start and end dates are fixed to whole months, the declaration and the payment each have their own deadline, and the one lifestyle exemption only covers married couples and registered partners who keep a Berlin flat for work. Put in your flat and your dates and this adds up what you will actually be billed, year by year, so the 15 July payment is something you planned for.