Published by The remaining useful life of buildings has been significantly reduced since yesterday. This also has tax implications:
legal basis
According to Article 9 of Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the energy performance of buildings the following applies:
Member States shall ensure that
(a) buildings and parts of buildings owned or rented by public bodies, including Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies, after … [date of entry into force of this Directive], at the latest
i) achieve at least energy efficiency class E from 1 January 2027 and
(ii) achieve at least energy efficiency class D from 1 January 2030;
b) non-residential buildings and parts of buildings other than those referred to in point (a) at the latest
i) achieve at least energy efficiency class E from 1 January 2027 and
(ii) achieve at least energy efficiency class D from 1 January 2030;
c) Residential buildings and parts of buildings at the latest
i) achieve at least energy efficiency class E from 1 January 2030 and
ii) achieve at least energy efficiency class D from 1 January 2033.
It won't stay that way, the following sentence shows how things will continue afterwards:
In their roadmap referred to in point (b) of Article 3(1), Member States shall establish linear trajectories for progressively achieving higher energy performance classes by 2040 and 2050 for those referred to in this paragraph, in line with the trajectory towards the conversion of the national building stock to zero-emission buildings and the achievement of the climate neutrality target buildings.
What exactly happens if a building does not meet the criteria is not clear from the directive. "Secure" probably means that it may no longer be used after the deadlines have expired.
reduced remaining useful life
This specifies the remaining useful life of buildings for tax purposes: Those with an overall energy efficiency class worse than E still have a remaining useful life of 6 years and 9 months, those with class D of 9 years and 9 months. For tax purposes, this means that the depreciation is spread over this period. If you are not yet in the subject, you can eg here ...
But for all other buildings that are not zero-emission buildings, the remaining useful life is now probably limited to the period up to 2050. Because by then the existing building stock is to be converted to zero emissions, which means that non-zero emission houses may no longer be operated.
assertion in practice
In order to be able to claim the higher depreciation from your tax office, it was previously necessary to submit an expert opinion that certifies the lower remaining useful life. This should no longer be necessary with the current European legal requirement, the presentation of the energy certificate should be sufficient.