What is the Ehegattenschaukel, and when does selling a rental property to your spouse save tax in Germany?

What the Ehegattenschaukel is

Ehegattenschaukel means spouse swing. One spouse sells a let property to the other spouse in a notarised purchase contract at the market value. Ownership moves from one name to the other, the price is paid, and the buying spouse starts as a new owner with new acquisition cost. Registered civil partners are treated like spouses.

The point is depreciation. A flat bought many years ago is depreciated on what it cost then. After a sale at today's value the buying spouse depreciates today's price, and if the purchase is financed, the loan interest is deductible as well. Because a sale between spouses is exempt from property transfer tax and a sale after ten years is free of income tax for the seller, the swing itself triggers only notary and land registry costs.

Do not confuse it with the Güterstandsschaukel, in which a couple changes its matrimonial property regime to move wealth between spouses free of gift tax. That is inheritance and gift tax planning. The Ehegattenschaukel is an income tax structure for let property. German search terms: Ehegattenschaukel Immobilie, Verkauf an den Ehegatten, AfA neu, Abschreibung verdoppeln, Spekulationsfrist.

The four rules it rests on

Couples who file a joint return do not need the loss to land with a particular spouse: income and losses of both are added up. The swing does not move income between spouses. It replaces an old, small depreciation basis with a new, large one.

A worked example, and why the effect is often smaller than promised

A flat bought in 2012 for 200,000 EUR including purchase costs, building share 80 percent, built in 1995. Today it is worth 400,000 EUR. Spouse A sells it to spouse B at that price. Marginal tax rate of the couple: 42 percent.

That is the honest size of the depreciation effect in a plain case: about 1,400 EUR a year against a one-off cost of 8,000 EUR. It becomes larger when the value has multiplied, when the building share is high, or when a building expert's report supports a shorter remaining useful life and with it a higher rate (§ 7 Abs. 4 S. 2 EStG).

The interest is the second lever, and the one most often oversold. If spouse B borrows the 400,000 EUR at 4.0 percent, the first year costs 16,000 EUR of interest and saves 6,720 EUR of tax. A loan taken out only for the deduction therefore costs more than it returns: the tax office gives back 42 cents of every euro of interest. The picture changes only where the household would carry that debt anyway, for example because spouse A uses the price to repay a private loan whose interest is not deductible. Then the household pays the same interest as before and deducts it. This is also the part the tax office examines most closely.

What the tax office requires: a real sale at arm's length

Contracts between close relatives are accepted for tax purposes when they are valid under civil law, seriously meant, actually carried out and what strangers would have agreed (Fremdvergleich). Where a structure has no purpose other than the tax advantage, § 42 AO treats it as an abuse and taxes as if it had not happened. For the swing that means:

• Market value. The price is the market value, documented by a valuer's report. A price above it inflates the depreciation and will be cut back; a price below it is partly a gift.
• Notarised contract and land registry. A real purchase contract, with transfer of ownership, benefits and burdens, and registration of the buying spouse as owner.
• The price is paid. By transfer from the buyer's own funds or from a loan in the buyer's name. A booking without a payment is not a sale.
• No money flowing back. If the seller returns or gifts the price to the buyer, or it is used to repay the buyer's loan, the sale is a circle and falls under § 42 AO.
• Financing on normal terms. A bank loan is the cleanest proof. A loan from the selling spouse is possible, but needs a written contract, market interest, security and payments that are actually made.
• The letting continues. The buying spouse enters into the leases and declares the rent. A reason beyond tax, such as estate planning or a division of assets between the spouses, helps and should be on record.

The Bundesfinanzhof held that interposing a close relative such as a spouse can be an abuse under § 42 AO, but that a value increase the buying spouse creates through her own development of the land is generally hers for tax purposes; it set the lower court's judgment aside and sent the case back (judgment of 10 July 2019, X R 21-22/17, a husband's sale of land to his wife, who developed and resold it). The line is drawn on the facts of each case, which is why the file matters as much as the contract.

What it costs, and what can go wrong

• Notary and land registry. About 1.5 to 2 percent of the price, every time. There is no agent and no transfer tax.
• The ten years are not over. A sale inside ten years is taxable for the selling spouse like a sale to a stranger, including the depreciation already claimed. The swing is a structure for properties held longer than that.
• A new ten-year period starts. The buying spouse acquires on the day of the contract. A sale to a third party within the following ten years is taxable.
• The existing loan. A mortgage on the property has to be repaid or taken over with the bank's consent. Early repayment inside a fixed-rate period costs a prepayment penalty.
• The bank decides on the buyer. The buying spouse needs the income and credit standing to carry the new loan alone.
• Gift tax. A price below market value splits the transfer into a sale and a gift. The allowance between spouses is 500,000 EUR within ten years (§ 16 ErbStG), and only the sale part creates new acquisition cost.
• The three-object limit. A sale at market value can count toward the limit of three properties sold within five years, beyond which the tax office assumes a trade. An owner with other recent sales should have this checked first.
• The 15 percent rule starts again. For three years after the purchase, renovation above 15 percent of the building's new acquisition cost is capitalised and not deducted (§ 6 Abs. 1 Nr. 1a EStG).
• Ownership really changes. The flat belongs to the other spouse afterwards, in a divorce and in an estate. A structure that only works if nothing in the marriage ever changes is not a tax structure, it is a bet.

Who it is for, and who should leave it alone

It fits a married couple with a let property held for more than ten years, bought cheaply or largely depreciated, whose value has risen clearly, with a high marginal tax rate, a stable income of the buying spouse and a reason to move the asset anyway. It does not fit a property bought a few years ago, a couple that needs every euro of liquidity, or an owner who plans to sell to a third party soon.

For an expat who is buying a first rental flat today, the Ehegattenschaukel is not a reason to buy and not something to set up now. It is a date in the calendar: ten years after the notary appointment the question can be asked, together with the question of whether to sell tax-free instead. What can be decided today is in whose name the flat is bought, and that is a question about income, financing and inheritance that belongs to a tax adviser before the purchase, as described in how expats reduce tax on German rental property.

LDP Group gives no tax advice. The structure of a purchase through LDP Group is set with the partner tax firm Helm & Partner or with the client's own tax adviser; LDP Group coordinates the property side. A sale between spouses needs a tax adviser, a valuer and a notary, in that order.

Limitations and what we do not know

• We are a property investment firm, not tax advisers or lawyers. This page describes the rules as of October 2026 and is no substitute for advice on a specific case.
• The worked example is our own illustration. It ignores the solidarity surcharge, church tax, the rent, the land split in the individual case and the cost of the valuer's report.
• Whether the tax office accepts a specific sale depends on the facts: price, payment, financing and what happens to the money. No source can promise recognition in advance; a binding ruling (verbindliche Auskunft) from the tax office is possible and costs a fee.
• The treatment of sales to relatives under the three-object limit and the conditions for a shorter useful life are decided case by case and have changed before.
• We have not examined how the owner's country of residence or citizenship treats the transfer; for couples with tax ties outside Germany that is a separate question.

What would change this answer

• A change to the exemption for spouses in § 3 Nr. 4 GrEStG, which would add 3.5 to 6.5 percent transfer tax to every swing.
• A change to § 23 EStG, for example a longer holding period or the end of the ten-year exemption for let property.
• A change to the depreciation rates or to the proof of a shorter useful life in § 7 Abs. 4 EStG.
• A new Bundesfinanzhof decision on § 42 AO for sales between spouses.

Last reviewed October 3, 2026. Reviewed by Nicholas Runtic and Abdelrahman Maged, co-founders of LDP Group, before publication and at every review date. We review this page every quarter and after every Jahressteuergesetz.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• § 3 GrEStG, allgemeine Ausnahmen von der Besteuerung, Nr. 4 Erwerb durch den Ehegatten (gesetze-im-internet.de)
• § 23 EStG, private Veräußerungsgeschäfte (ten-year rule)
• § 7 EStG, Absetzung für Abnutzung, Abs. 4
• § 9 EStG, Werbungskosten, Abs. 1 S. 3 Nr. 1 Schuldzinsen
• § 42 AO, Missbrauch von rechtlichen Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten
• § 6 EStG, Abs. 1 Nr. 1a anschaffungsnahe Herstellungskosten (15 percent rule)
• § 16 ErbStG, Freibeträge (allowance between spouses)
• Bundesfinanzhof, judgment of 10.07.2019, X R 21-22/17 (§ 42 AO and transfers between spouses)
• Rohlmann Steuerberatung, Glossar: Ehegattenschaukel (read 03.10.2026)
• Steuerberatung Düsseldorf, Ehegattenschaukel bei Immobilien: conditions and costs (read 03.10.2026)
• Capri Consult, Die Ehegattenschaukel: ein Rechenbeispiel (read 03.10.2026)