You have inherited a family home in Germany and now live in it yourself. You now want to move and rent out the house. In your existing asset planning the inheritance tax exemption is considered finally resolved. Before the change of use you should have checked whether and under what conditions it continues to apply.
Securing the actual basis for the exemption
Gather inheritance tax documents, acquisition data, previous usage history and any existing notices. Which concession was actually taken into account for which person and which part of the building? A house that was previously occupied by the family does not by that designation alone meet every requirement.
§ 13 Absatz 1 Nummern 4b und 4c ErbStG distinguish acquisitions, among others, by surviving spouses or life partners and certain children. The provisions tie the family home exemption to a more precisely defined personal residential use. For children, number 4c additionally contains a living area limit of 200 square metres. [ERBST13] This article does not definitively examine your initial entitlement.
Classify the planned change professionally in advance
Both named provisions state a retroactive loss if the favoured person no longer uses the property for residential purposes within ten years after acquisition; an exception exists for compelling reasons that prevent personal use. [ERBST13] Whether your actual situation falls under this must be assessed individually. A personal desire for a different place of residence is neither generally recognised here nor excluded by a general internet formulation.
Secure the reasons and the intended timetable. A newly signed tenancy agreement can create a further commitment before the economic consequences are understood. Therefore have the tax question clarified together with your housing planning.
Keep two financial plans side by side
Prepare a rental calculation with actually substantiated assumptions on income and expenses. Separately there is a possible tax consequence to be determined professionally. Rental income is not treated as automatically sufficient to cover a one-off tax amount.
In the hypothetical case a monthly surplus from the house is to support the new flat. The household only learns during preparation that the continued application of the tax relief still needs to be checked. It initially has two variants calculated and does not adopt an arbitrary tax flat rate from another case.
Make the decision with confirmed consequences
Record the result, the data used and any necessary notifications together with the tax advice. The original inheritance, the current property value and the new rental are different components of a coherent decision.
The article provides no tax optimisation and no guarantee of an exemption. Its practical use is to make a prerequisite previously treated as resolved visible again in good time. Only after that can it be assessed whether the planned change of residence and its financing fit under the actual conditions.