rain of money for communities
Trade tax receipts at record level
08/21/2023, 11:00 a.m
After 2021, the municipalities can once again look forward to increasing income from trade tax. Last year the increase was almost 15 percent. In Saxony-Anhalt in particular, income is bubbling up, in contrast to Brandenburg.
In the past year, the municipalities in Germany once again achieved a record high in revenue from trade tax. The total rose by 14.9 percent year-on-year to around 70.2 billion euros, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden. After a decline in the first Corona year 2020, a record value since the beginning of the time series in 1991 was already reached in 2021.
According to the information, the municipalities in Saxony-Anhalt with 34.8 percent and Rhineland-Palatinate with 26.7 percent recorded the highest increase in the non-city states in 2022. Among the city states, Hamburg achieved the largest increase with 23.6 percent. Brandenburg was the only federal state to post a minus of 3.8 percent, as the Federal Office announced. The authorities did not comment on the reasons.
The income from property tax A, which is levied on the assets of agricultural and forestry operations, rose by 0.3 percent to 400 million euros. Property tax B, which is levied on real estate, flowed 2.0 percent more, at 14.9 billion euros. The income from property tax and trade tax, the so-called real taxes, totaled around 85.5 billion euros, which was 12.4 percent more than in the previous year.
According to the Federal Office, the average assessment rate for all municipalities in Germany for trade tax was 403 percent in 2022, as in the previous year. For property tax A, the assessment rate increased by 3 percentage points to an average of 350 percent. The average assessment rate of property tax B increased by 5 percentage points and was 486 percent.