I’m renting out an apartment; how do I manage the taxes myself?

When you rent out an apartment, you must report your figures to the tax authorities.

You can do it yourself, but it requires that you have a handle on your income, deductions, and the tax scheme you wish to use.

What do you need to do as a landlord?

If you want to handle the taxes yourself, you typically need to go through these steps:

1. Get an overview of your income and expenses

You need to gather:

rental income
interest expenses on loans
maintenance and operating expenses
any other housing-related expenses

2. Find your deductions

As a landlord, you can typically deduct expenses for, e.g.:

interest
maintenance
insurance and operations

It is important to distinguish between maintenance and improvements, as they are treated differently for tax purposes.

3. Calculate your taxable result

The tax is calculated as:

Rental income – deductible expenses = taxable profit

4. Choose the right tax scheme

You also need to consider which tax scheme you wish to be taxed under.

You can choose one of the following:

Personal Tax Act (fewest benefits)
Capital Return Scheme (more benefits)
Business Tax Scheme (most benefits)

Your choice of scheme depends on everything from financing to your personal finances.

5. Report to the Danish Tax Agency

Once you have added up the figures and gained an overview of your rental accounts, you must report them in the relevant fields on your tax return.

Why is it difficult to do yourself?

Many landlords find it difficult to get a full overview because:

deduction rules can be complex
tax schemes offer opportunities for tax optimization that can be difficult to calculate
small errors can change the result
the calculation is not fully automated

An easier way to manage your taxes

If you want to do it yourself but avoid manual calculations and errors, many choose to use a digital tool for property rental.

Reportability helps landlords to:

calculate tax automatically
find and apply relevant deductions
manage tax schemes correctly
make reporting simpler and more manageable

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