The Baden-Württemberg tax offices are still chasing missing property tax returns. About five percent of the declarations are still missing, as a spokesman for the Ministry of Finance in Stuttgart announced. So far, 95 percent (as of January 10th), i.e. around 5.4 million, have been handed in. Statements are still being received so that this value will continue to improve. In total, over 850,000 reminder letters were sent in the southwest.
If you don’t give an explanation, you’ll get in trouble. In mid-November 2023, the tax offices began issuing tax assessments with estimated tax bases in the cases that were still open. “For agricultural and forestry assets, reminders and estimates will follow in the first half of 2024.” Whether a tax office has imposed a fine or a late payment surcharge in individual cases is at the discretion of the respective authority, as the spokesman further announced.
A new property tax calculation will apply from 2025. The Federal Constitutional Court had demanded this, because the tax offices recently calculated the value of a property based on completely outdated data, from 1935 in East Germany and from 1964 in West Germany. Almost 36 million properties nationwide now have to be revalued for the recalculation.
The property tax is collected by the municipalities. The Ministry of Finance spokesman said: “We continue to expect to enable all municipalities to set their assessment rates by mid-2024.” As a result of the property tax reform, there will probably be changes to the assessment rates in the municipalities. The communities will also keep an eye on their respective financial needs. The determination of the assessment rates is the responsibility of the municipality. The assessment rate is a factor by which the tax base amount is multiplied to determine the tax liability.
Information on property tax in Baden-Württemberg
