Berlin
The assessments for the new property tax are sent out by the tax office. You don’t have to pay anything yet, but you should pay attention to that.
In Germany, all owners of residential and commercial properties as well as agricultural and forestry companies are required to pay the property tax obligated. The previous system for levying property tax was changed in 2018 from declared unconstitutional by the Federal Constitutional Court. The property tax is therefore recalculated.
Accordingly, all property owners get a new one tax notice sent by the tax office. Don’t panic: you don’t have to pay anything yet. However, you shouldn’t toss the mail carelessly in the drawer either.
Post from the tax office: These letters are sent
Before anyone gets any mail from the tax office, all property owners must first submit the so-called “Declaration on the determination of the property tax value”. the deadline for this ends on January 31, 2023. It is important that the levy can only be done electronically – either via the “Mein Elster” portal or the “www.grundsteuererklaerung-fuer-privateigentum.de” website. The latter is only possible if the property is undeveloped land, one- and two-family houses or condominiums.
Once the declaration has been submitted, all citizens who own land receive two letters from the tax office:
- Letter on property tax measurement amount: In the first letter you will receive your property tax reading. This is a factor that is used in addition to the property tax assessment rate and the property tax value to calculate your property tax.
- Writing on the property tax value: In this letter you will receive the property tax value. It is a factor that indicates the value of your property.
It should be noted that not all federal states use the new Property Tax Scheme implement uniformly. The federal states were “granted the right to introduce their own land tax regulations that deviate from federal law,” explains the Federal Ministry of Finance. Make of this possibility Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Bavaria, Saarland and Saxony use. Accordingly, the letters from the tax office may vary depending on the federal state.
Property tax notice: You must pay attention to this when you receive the post from the tax office
It doesn’t matter which state you live in or where your property is located. All property owners must post Office note the following from the tax office:
- Check your notifications: There should be no mistakes in either the property tax amount or the property tax value. Therefore, check the information carefully. Pay attention to different regulations in the respective federal state. If you discover errors, you must raise an objection within four weeks.
- Don’t pay yet: Even if you are already getting mail from the tax office listing amounts, you do not have to pay any money yet. According to the new regulations, real estate tax will only be levied from January 1, 2025. The income goes exclusively to the cities and municipalities.
Property tax from 2025: How much do property owners have to pay?
That’s a question all landowners ask themselves. So far there is no answer to this, as the values of all properties must first be determined. Therefore, the property tax is temporarily still until end of 2024 raised in its current form. “It will probably take until autumn 2024 before the specific amount of the future property tax for the majority of taxpayers is known,” says the Federal Ministry of Finance.
New property tax: The tax return will be easier in the future
According to the Federal Ministry of Finance, only a few will flow into the calculation of property tax in the future parameter which reduces the tax bureaucracy for property owners. These five parameters are required for the tax return:
- land area
- ground value
- property type
- age of the building
- living/usable area
For comparison: Currently, according to the Federal Ministry of Finance for the calculation the property tax requires about 20 factors.
More articles from this category can be found here: Life
