How is my US rental property or home taxed once I'm Danish resident?
Short answer: Once you are Danish tax resident, Denmark generally taxes your worldwide income, which includes net rental income from a US property you kept, with a credit intended to prevent double taxation on the same income. A home purchased in Denmark separately enters the ejendomsskatteloven system, under which Danish homeowners pay an annual ejendomsværdiskat based on the property's assessed value.
Written and reviewed by Anthony Walsh, Selanis. Last reviewed 2026-10-09.
Why it works this way
Danish tax residents are taxed on worldwide income, so a kept US rental property's net income — after Danish-allowable expenses, which do not always match US depreciation rules — needs to be reported in Denmark as well as in the US, with the US–Denmark treaty and foreign tax credit mechanisms used to prevent the same income being taxed twice in full.
US depreciation recapture on an eventual sale is a US-specific concept that Denmark does not mirror, which can create a mismatch in the year of sale between the US and Danish computation of gain.
A home bought in Denmark is a separate question from a kept US rental: Denmark's modernised property tax law, effective from 1 January 2024, charges ejendomsværdiskat annually based on the property's assessed value under the current valuation rules, alongside land tax (grundskyld) assessed separately [1](https://tax.dk/jv-2024-2/ch/C_H_4_2.htm). Because the national valuation rollout has run behind schedule, many homes have been taxed on provisional assessments with a subsequent true-up once the final valuation is issued [2](https://www.tax.dk/jv-2024-1/ch/C_H_4_7.htm).
A euro or kroner-denominated mortgage on a Danish home can also create a US-side currency question on repayment or refinancing, separate from the property tax itself, if the dollar has moved significantly against the krone since the loan was taken out.
The expensive mistake: Not reporting the US property in Denmark because 'the tax is paid in the US'
Danish worldwide-income taxation means a kept US rental property generally has to be reported on the Danish return too, with credit claimed for US tax paid — not treated as outside Denmark's scope simply because it sits in the United States.
What to do
- Report US rental income on both returns and claim the treaty credit — Keep expense records in a form that supports both US depreciation schedules and Danish allowable-expense rules.
- Confirm whether your Danish home's valuation is final or provisional — A provisional assessment can mean a later true-up to your annual ejendomsværdiskat bill.
- Check any kroner mortgage for a US currency-gain exposure on refinancing — Significant exchange rate movement since origination can turn a routine refinance into a US taxable event.