Tax credit for household expenses in renovations conducted at a housing company
If you own an apartment, you are entitled to the credit only on the kind of maintenance and modernisation work that you, as the housing company’s shareholder, are responsible for and paying for.
The separation of responsibilities between a shareholder and the housing company is determined by law or in the housing company’s Articles of Association.
If it is the housing company’s responsibility to conduct the renovations, you cannot claim the credit for renovation expenses even if you had paid them yourself.
When the housing company is responsible for renovations, no credit is available
The housing company decides on renovations and collects money for them in the form of charges. This means that the work is the housing company’s responsibility. Renovations financed with housing-company charges do not entitle you to the credit.
If responsibility for the maintenance is transferred to the shareholders by amendment of the Articles of Association, the amendment must be filed with the Trade Register. If the allocation of responsibilities has not been officially filed this way, the shareholder is not entitled to the tax credit.
Housing companies cannot be entitled to tax credits for household expenses. The taxpayer benefiting from these tax credits must be an individual (or a deceased person's estate for the year during which the deceased person died).
The owner of an apartment is entitled to the credit
If you own an apartment, you are entitled to the credit on the maintenance and modernisation expenses for which the housing company is not responsible. This includes decorating in the apartment, such as painting or hanging wallpaper on the walls.
When the housing company has renovations done, you can request the tax credit on certain additional jobs that are not financed with housing-company charges and for which you are the party signing the purchase order. Examples of an additional job might include a bathroom tiling work, ordered and paid by you, at a time when the housing company conducts renovations of the residential building's plumbing.
To get the credit, you must sign the contract directly with the entrepreneur and pay the extra invoice directly to them.
Note that you cannot get the credit for household expenses for a renovation job performed at a time when you renting out the apartment. Instead, you can deduct the renovation expenses from your rental income.
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