Münster (dpa / lnw) - Around 70 percent of the property tax returns were received by the tax offices in North Rhine-Westphalia on time. The Oberfinanzdirektion (OFD) North Rhine-Westphalia announced on Wednesday that these were 4.7 million of the 6.7 million expected declarations. Over 90 percent of these were submitted digitally. The submission deadline in NRW expired on January 31, 2023.
"The tax offices in North Rhine-Westphalia will send a reminder to all owners who have not yet fulfilled their obligation to submit their property tax return," said Chief Finance President Werner Brommund in a statement.
If the declaration is still not submitted, the tax authorities would estimate the tax bases. The obligation to submit the property tax return remains, however, he emphasized. In addition, the tax authorities have the option of setting a surcharge for delays or even setting a penalty payment. Anyone who still has to submit the property tax return can continue to do so digitally via the Elster online tax office.
Anyone who has submitted the declaration will receive the property tax value and the property tax assessment notice from the tax office. In principle, the declarations would be processed according to their receipt by the tax office. According to earlier information from the OFD, property tax value and property tax assessment notifications have been sent to property owners in NRW since September who submitted a declaration early on.
"What many people don't realize is that the calculated property tax value does not yet have any meaningfulness about the property tax to be paid," said Brommund. From 2024, the municipalities will first set the new assessment rates and use them to calculate the property tax to be paid. Property tax payments under the new law are to be made from January 1, 2025. In contrast to Bavaria, the NRW state government had not extended the deadline for property tax returns on Tuesday.
