Tax office Hamburg-Am Tierpark

Apply for a housing subsidy

Prerequisites

• They are fully liable for income tax in Germany and have reached the age of 16 or are orphans.
• They make eligible expenditures for housing construction.
• You can receive the housing construction premium if you do not exceed certain income limits.
• According to your income tax assessment, your taxable income for the savings year is no higher than:
  • EUR 35,000 if you are single, or
  • EUR 70,000 if you are married or have entered into a civil partnership (provided that spouses/civil partners are jointly assessed under the LPartG).
  • If you have children who are taken into account for tax purposes, the tax allowances for the entire year will be deducted from your income to determine the income relevant for the premium.

Documents required

• Application for housing construction premium (You can obtain this from your building society or the company to which you made the payments. It is often sent with the annual account statement.)

Please note

The amount of the housing construction premium depends on the eligible expenses you incur in the respective calendar year. The premium amounts to 10% of these expenses. The maximum eligible amount is €700 per person or €1,400 for married couples filing jointly. Therefore, single individuals can receive a maximum premium of €70 and married couples a maximum premium of €140.

The housing construction premium must be used together with the eligible expenses for the intended purpose.

You cannot receive both the employee savings allowance and a housing construction premium for employee savings plans (VL), for example, contributions to a building savings contract. This prevents double benefits. Therefore, contributions to promote housing construction must not qualify as VL. You are entitled to the employee savings allowance. If you cannot claim the employee savings allowance, for example, because you exceed the income limits, the VL contributions can be included in your application for the housing construction premium and taken into account when determining the premium.

Deadlines

Apply for the housing construction premium by the end of the second calendar year following the savings year.

Procedure

• You apply for the housing construction premium at your investment institution.

Procedure for building society savings contracts

• The housing construction premium is calculated and reserved for you on a regular basis. You will generally only receive payment of the accumulated housing construction premiums once you use the building savings contract for housing-related purposes, for example, when you purchase residential property.

Old contracts (concluded before January 1, 2009):

You will only receive the housing construction premium when

• this one is assigned
• the fixed term of 7 years since the conclusion of the contract has been exceeded or
• The building society savings contract has been accessed without causing harm.

Should you use the accumulated credit for other purposes within the 7-year fixed-term period, you will forfeit your entitlement to the housing construction premium.

New contracts (concluded from 1 January 2009 onwards):

You will only receive the housing construction premium when

• this one is assigned
• the seven-year commitment period since the conclusion of the contract has been exceeded,
• You have not yet reached the age of 25 at the time of conclusion of the contract (unless used for residential construction) or
• The building society savings contract has been accessed without causing harm.

Processing time

The processing time depends on the individual case.

Fees

no

Legal remedies

appeal

Legal basis

Housing Construction Premium Act (WoPG)


https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/wopg