How quickly should one pay off a house?

Photovoltaics may significantly reduce the lifespan of the roof, since roof tiles are happily being sawed through.

Huh?!

Rented properties are above all also a tax-saving model through depreciation. In this case, sometimes neither the tenant nor the landlord has to pay for maintenance - mathematically, the state does.

Again: Huh?!
You do know what depreciation means, right? It simply means that the tax burden is reduced. The state does not pay you anything. This only reduces the amount of tax you have to pay on rental income.
In total, maintenance still has to be paid. And sooner or later, a landlord ALWAYS passes these costs on.

Again: Huh?!
Do you even know what depreciation means? It simply means that the tax burden is reduced. The state doesn't pay you anything. This only reduces the amount of tax you have to pay on rental income.
In total, maintenance still has to be paid. And sooner or later, a landlord ALWAYS passes these costs on.

Normally, the income from the property is negative, i.e., you can offset it against other income and therefore receive a tax refund in calculation.

normally the income from the property is negative, i.e. it can be offset against other income and therefore results in a calculated tax refund

Only with a properly high financing. This has not been the case in recent years. The depreciation (AfA) and the non-allocable ancillary costs are not sufficient for negative income from renting and leasing (at most now with new buildings using the adjusted AfA).

normally the income from the property is negative, i.e. you can offset it with other income and therefore receive a tax refund in calculation

No matter what: the tax refund will not be as high as the modernization costs. You can only deduct the amount from your taxable income. You do not get the amount paid out as a tax refund.

Extremely simplified representation with fictitious numbers:



Egon has a taxable income of 100,000 euros. Over the year, he paid 30% in taxes. That amounts to 30,000 euros.

Now he declares deductible expenses of 10,000 euros in the tax return.

So he only has to pay taxes on 90k euros. That makes a tax liability of 27k euros.



He therefore receives a tax refund of 3,000 euros.

(As mentioned..strongly simplified... of course, the tax rate actually decreases as well)



The 3,000 euro tax refund is contrasted with the 10,000 euro actual expenses (provided they were fully deductible, otherwise even more).



He therefore pays the 7,000 euros out of his own pocket.

Or he gets the money back from his tenant in the following years.

Here it is presented as if it could be credited against all types of income, is that correct? I thought you can only deduct costs of the property from income from renting and leasing, but not, for example, from non-self-employed work or stock gains, etc.