RENODIARYRENOVATION MANAGER
DEEN Start for free
DE
Tax & Depreciation Maintenance

Fitted Kitchen Depreciation: 10-Year AfA for Landlords

Last updated: 7 September 2026 · Reading time approx. 8 minutes

The old kitchen in your let flat is finished, the new one costs €9,600 including installation. The obvious entry — the whole invoice as deductible expenses in the year you paid it — has been wrong since 2016. The Federal Fiscal Court (Bundesfinanzhof, BFH) changed its case law: a fitted kitchen is a single asset and is written off over ten years. This article shows what that means in figures, where the instant deduction survives, and which mistake becomes expensive with furnished lettings.

The short answer

A completely renewed fitted kitchen is not a maintenance expense. Sink, hob, built-in units and permanently installed appliances together form one asset, which under the BFH judgment of 3 August 2016 (IX R 14/15) is written off over ten years. The deduction runs through straight-line depreciation (AfA) under § 7 (1) sentence 1 EStG, reduced month by month in the year of acquisition.

Why the kitchen is an asset of its own for tax purposes

Until 2016 a kitchen was a patchwork. The sink and — depending on regional custom — the hob counted as non-independent parts of the building, so replacing them was immediately deductible maintenance expense. Appliances were treated individually as low-value assets (geringwertige Wirtschaftsgüter, GWG), the units themselves spread over ten years. One and the same invoice fell apart into three tax outcomes.

The BFH's ninth senate ended that split. A modern fitted kitchen is individually planned, the base units are permanently joined to one another and to a continuous worktop, and outside that assembly the individual parts would have no function left. They appear as a single whole — and are therefore a single asset.

That has an immediate side effect in practice: the €800 low-value-asset threshold no longer applies to the individual components. Under § 6 (2) sentence 2 EStG an asset is not capable of independent use if it can only be used together with other assets and the parts are technically matched to one another. That is exactly what an installed kitchen unit is. Deducting the €640 oven separately does not work as long as it is part of the newly acquired kitchen.

How to calculate the AfA — a worked example

Straight-line depreciation spreads the acquisition cost evenly over the useful life (§ 7 (1) sentence 1 EStG). In the year of acquisition the annual amount is reduced by one twelfth for each full month preceding the month of acquisition (§ 7 (1) sentence 4 EStG) — a kitchen installed in April therefore yields nine twelfths, not a full year.

Example: kitchen including installation €9,600, installed in April 2026, useful life ten years. Annual AfA = €9,600 ÷ 10 = €960.

YearAfACalculationResidual value at year end
2026 (from April)€7209/12 × €960€8,880
2027 to 2035€960 eachfull annual amount€240 (end of 2035)
2036€2403/12 × €960€0

The difference from the former instant deduction is substantial. At an assumed marginal tax rate of 42%, the invoice would have saved roughly €4,032 of tax in 2026. Through the AfA it is roughly €302 in 2026 — the rest follows, but spread over eleven calendar years. Anyone buying a flat, refurbishing it and budgeting the first year's cash flow tightly should plan for that shift from the outset.

When the instant deduction still applies

The ten-year rule concerns the asset "fitted kitchen". A separately acquired appliance that can be used on its own is a different matter. For landlords, § 9 (1) sentence 3 no. 7 sentence 2 EStG makes the low-value-asset rule in § 6 (2) sentences 1 to 3 EStG apply accordingly: movable assets capable of independent use costing up to €800 are deductible in full in the year of acquisition.

Two details decide which figure you compare against the threshold:

Partial replacement is not settled. The BFH decided the case of a complete renewal. Whether replacing a single broken appliance inside an existing, already capitalised kitchen is immediately deductible as maintenance of that asset is not answered by the judgment. Clarify that case with your tax adviser rather than booking it by instinct — and keep the invoice in a form that shows exactly what was replaced.

The kitchen is not a building — and what follows from that

Because the fitted kitchen is an independent movable asset, it does not run through building depreciation. § 7 (4) EStG prescribes 3% for residential buildings completed after 31 December 2022 and 2% for earlier years. Writing the kitchen off that way would stretch the deduction over decades. How building AfA itself works, and why the split of the purchase price is the decisive step, is covered in our article on building depreciation.

The second consequence is more interesting: the 15% threshold. Under § 6 (1) no. 1a sentence 1 EStG, repair and modernisation costs incurred within three years of purchase become construction costs if, excluding VAT, they exceed 15% of the building's acquisition cost. The current BMF circular of 26 January 2026 narrows in margin no. 56 what counts at all: such costs can only be acquisition-related construction costs "if they are carried out on fixtures of the building or on the building itself".

The BMF circular does not mention kitchens. It names no fitted kitchen, neither including nor excluding it. If your refurbishment budget after the purchase sits close to the 15% threshold, the treatment of the kitchen is therefore a question for your tax adviser — not one to settle with a rule of thumb. How the threshold works otherwise, and which items are safely outside it, is set out in our article on the 15% threshold for acquisition-related construction costs.

Furnished letting: the furniture surcharge

Providing a kitchen means letting more than bare walls — and that has to be reflected in the local reference rent. It matters through § 21 (2) EStG: if the rent is below 50% of the local market rent, the letting is split into a paid and an unpaid part; from 66% it counts as fully paid and the deduction of expenses stays intact. The local reference rent is the yardstick — and it rises when a fitted kitchen is let along with the flat. Leave the surcharge out and you slip below the ratio without noticing. The details are in our article on letting below market rent to relatives.

What the courts have decided

Both cornerstones of this topic — that the kitchen is a single asset, and how it affects the reference rent — come not from the statute but from the Federal Fiscal Court (Bundesfinanzhof, BFH). Both decisions are officially published (marked "V"), so the tax authorities apply them to comparable cases.

BFH, judgment of 3 August 2016 – IX R 14/15

The ninth senate expressly changed its case law. The cost of completely renewing a fitted kitchen consisting of sink, hob, built-in units and appliances is not immediately deductible as maintenance expense; the kitchen is "a single asset that is to be written off over ten years". The earlier practice of treating sink and hob as parts of the building is therefore obsolete. For owners this means the kitchen invoice belongs in the fixed-asset register, not in the maintenance pot — and the tax benefit arrives over eleven calendar years instead of one.

BFH, judgment of 6 February 2018 – IX R 14/17

Where the local rent index does not cover furnished flats, a surcharge for the furniture must be added to the local market rent — but only to the extent one can actually be established on the local rental market. More important is what the senate forbids: such a surcharge "cannot be derived from the monthly amount of the straight-line depreciation for the furniture and fittings provided. Applying a percentage rental-yield mark-up is not permissible." Both convenient shortcuts — adding the kitchen's monthly AfA, or assuming a flat percentage yield — are off the table. Anyone letting to relatives should therefore derive the reference rent on solid ground before the deduction of expenses depends on it.

Frequently asked questions

Does the ten-year rule also apply to a second-hand kitchen?

The ten years come from the official depreciation tables for a newly acquired kitchen, and the BFH endorsed that approach in IX R 14/15. For a used kitchen the remaining useful life has to be estimated — what period is appropriate depends on the facts and belongs in a conversation with your tax adviser.

What about a washing machine I provide for the tenant?

A free-standing washing machine can be used independently and is therefore not part of the asset "fitted kitchen". Up to €800 the instant deduction applies via § 9 (1) sentence 3 no. 7 sentence 2 EStG in conjunction with § 6 (2) sentence 1 EStG; above that, straight-line depreciation over the appliance's useful life.

I paid in December but it was installed in January. Which date counts?

For depreciation it is not the payment date that counts but the acquisition. § 7 (1) sentence 4 EStG reduces the annual amount by one twelfth for each full month before the month of acquisition. The cash-basis principle that governs maintenance expense plays no role here.

Does the kitchen count towards the 15% threshold after a purchase?

There is no blanket answer. The BMF circular of 26 January 2026 includes in margin no. 56 only measures "on fixtures of the building or on the building itself" and does not address fitted kitchens expressly. If your budget sits close to the threshold, this is a question for your tax adviser.

Can I write the kitchen off early if it breaks after six years?

If an asset leaves the letting before the end of its useful life, the residual book value is in principle not yet used up. How it takes effect depends on the specific event — document the date and the reason and have the entry reviewed.

Kitchen, invoice and depreciation in one place

RenoDiary keeps tradespeople's invoices, receipts and depreciation together per property and shows what a refurbishment does to your cash flow and your Anlage V tax schedule.

Start for free

Sources

This article provides general orientation and does not replace individual tax or legal advice within the meaning of § 3 StBerG. The example figures are illustrations of the arithmetic; whether and to what extent a deduction is permissible is decided on the facts of the case.