The submission deadline for the property tax return is to be extended once nationwide from the end of October to the end of January 2023. That was decided by the finance ministers of the federal states. The “Handelsblatt” had previously reported.
Bavaria’s finance minister Albert Füracker (CSU) said on Thursday that extending the deadline for filing property tax returns by three months would relieve the burden on citizens, business and tax consultants.
A week ago it was said that not even every third house and apartment owner had submitted their documents online. Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) had campaigned for an extension of the deadline. “In these times we all have other and important things to do, other and bigger concerns,” Lindner said. He had announced that he would seek talks with the federal states in order to extend the deadline by several months. The decision was up to the states.
New data is needed
From 2025, the new property tax calculation will apply. The Federal Constitutional Court had demanded this, because the tax offices recently calculated the value of a property on the basis of completely outdated data, from 1935 in East Germany and from 1964 in West Germany. Almost 36 million properties now have to be revalued for the recalculation.
The tax authorities need data from all owners. Usually it is about the plot and living space, the type of building, years of construction and the so-called land value, which the owners have to upload in a kind of additional tax return via the “Elster” tax software or a portal of the Ministry of Finance – official tax language included. Even before the start, experts warned that it could go wrong because it was far too complicated.
system overloaded
The tax authorities have been receiving the data since July 1st. A few days later, technical difficulties became apparent: “Elster” was temporarily paralyzed because many citizens wanted to call up the property tax page at the same time. Even allotment owners have to make a declaration, in addition to millions of homeowners and apartment owners.
Property tax is one of the most important sources of income for municipalities. It is an annual tax on the ownership of land and buildings – but a landlord can also pass it on to the tenants via the utility bill. For most apartment owners, it is a few hundred euros a year, for owners of apartment buildings, on the other hand, it is often four-digit amounts.
How much property tax the individual owners will actually have to pay from 2025 will remain open for a while. Because that depends crucially on the so-called assessment rates of the municipalities.
