Background: The classification of an investment fund as a property fund or even a foreign property fund is of crucial importance, as it determines whether 60% or even 80% of investors’ investment income is tax-exempt (so-called partial property exemption or partial foreign property exemption). The decisive factor in this respect is whether the investment fund continuously invests more than 50% of its assets in property or in foreign property. It is therefore advantageous for investors if as large a proportion as possible of an investment fund’s assets qualifies as property. The requirements for this were significantly tightened by the Growth Opportunities Act, with effect from 2025. Under this Act, property is not to be counted as property for the purposes of the quota calculation if the income from letting or leasing or from the sale is not subject to taxation or is more than 50 per cent exempt from taxation. The property is then regarded as an ‘other asset’ that does not entitle investors to a partial exemption. The same applies to property held by the investment fund indirectly via capital companies or partnerships.
The BMF letter: In a letter dated 24 November 2025, the BMF set out the tax authorities’ view on the new legal situation. According to this, it is already detrimental if one of the two conditions is met, i.e. if either the sale of the property or the income from letting is tax-exempt or subject to a substantial tax exemption. Furthermore, capital gains are deemed not to have been sufficiently taxed if only the depreciation is reversed, but the increase in the property’s value is not taxed
(so-called claw-back taxation).
By contrast, it is deemed harmless if profits are offset against losses from previous years or if losses are carried back to previous tax assessment periods. Low or reduced tax rates are also deemed harmless.
What matters to the tax authorities is not whether (capital) gains from the property were actually generated in the relevant tax year; instead, what matters to the tax authorities is whether the applicable legal situation in the country where the property is situated theoretically provides for sufficient taxation.
At least the tax authorities are granting investors a one-year ‘grace period’: it is sufficient if the new requirements are only met from 1 January 2026 onwards.
Conclusion:
In future, the investment fund – or, particularly in the case of foreign investment funds, the German investor – must therefore keep a close eye on tax regulations abroad if they wish to claim the partial exemption. In case of doubt, the tax situation for each property in the investment fund’s portfolio must be explained to the tax office annually. It is doubtful whether this can be implemented in practice. Particularly in the case of foreign investment funds in which German investors hold only a small stake, German investors are likely to be largely left to their own devices. In effect, investing in investment funds with foreign property is being made less attractive. This is not what reducing bureaucracy looks like.
Download now:
BMF Cirular: Questions regarding the application of the Investment Tax Art in the version applicable from 1 January 2018 (InvTA)
The attached Circular Letter of the German Ministry of Finance is an AI-generated convenience translation. As is well known, artificial intelligence occasionally generates inaccurate results.
LM waives any liability for completeness or correctness of such translation.
In case of doubt please always refer to the German original version.
All contributions have been compiled to the best of our knowledge. However, we cannot accept any liability for their content.
