One year after the deadline
More than a million property tax returns are still missing
January 27, 2024, 1:06 p.m
The new property tax calculation will apply in Germany from 2025. To achieve this, around 36 million properties need to be revalued. The deadline for submitting the required information has long since passed and yet more than a million declarations are still missing nationwide.
Around a year after the deadline for filing in most federal states, more than a million property tax returns are still missing in Germany. This was the result of a survey by the German Press Agency among the financial departments of the federal states. By mid-January, for example, around 250,000 declarations were still missing in Lower Saxony and Baden-Württemberg and around 150,000 in Brandenburg. In Bavaria, around 6.2 of the 6.5 million necessary declarations were submitted at the turn of the year. At the end of last year, around 245,000 documents were still missing in Rhineland-Palatinate and around 100,000 in Thuringia. In Hesse, more than 60,000 declarations were recently missing, and in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt there were around 50,000 each.
From North Rhine-Westphalia it was said that around 94 percent of the declarations were received by the tax offices. More than five percent have been estimated so far, as the regional finance directorate announced. This means that data would be available for almost all properties in the most populous federal state. If the information is not available after some time, it is estimated in some places in Germany. Several finance departments indicated that the number of missing declarations could be even greater, as some were received multiple times. Owners would have to expect late fees if they did not submit their information.
Deadline for submission ends in 2022
The original deadline for submitting the property tax return was the end of October 2022. Due to the slow receipt, the deadline was extended in almost all federal states until the end of January 2023 – in Bavaria until spring last year. In many federal states, anyone who did not submit their declaration on time received a reminder letter. Nationwide, there were several million letters, as the figures from the finance ministries show.
The new property tax calculation will apply from 2025. The reform is based on a decision by the Federal Constitutional Court in 2018, according to which the previous assessment basis in Germany is unconstitutional. Until recently, the tax offices calculated the value of a property based on completely outdated data (West 1964, East 1935). Despite the lack of explanation in many cases, the finance departments assumed that the start of the new calculation could be adhered to.
According to the Federal Ministry of Finance, around 36 million properties in Germany must be revalued for the calculation. This is done based on information that owners must submit. This can be done via the Elster reporting portal, which many people already know from tax returns. Property tax is one of the most important sources of income for municipalities. Owners can pass the property tax on to landlords through additional costs. According to the Federal Ministry of Finance, one quarter of the property tax is due in mid-February, May, August and November. Upon request, the tax can also be paid in one amount.
Berlin is planning a lower assessment rate
Millions of new property tax assessment notices have so far been sent from tax offices to owners and municipalities nationwide. However, it is not yet stated whether the property tax will increase, as the Lower Saxony Ministry of Finance announced. This happens when the cities and municipalities have set the so-called assessment rates with which the tax is calculated. A ministry spokeswoman in Hanover said this is not expected in Lower Saxony until autumn.
According to the federal government, the reform is not intended to raise more money. In Berlin, owners can hope for a lower assessment rate and therefore fewer taxes. Finance Senator Stefan Evers from the CDU announced this in mid-January. “Without being able to give a specific figure, I can offer you the prospect of reducing the assessment rate very significantly,” he said at a plenary session.