According to a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court, the property tax must be recalculated. Millions of people have to submit a second tax return because of this. The rush is too much for the Elster tax platform.
A large crowd as a result of the property tax reform has led to difficulties with the "Elster" tax platform. "Due to the enormous interest in the forms for the property tax reform, there are currently restrictions on availability," the website said. "We are already working intensively on being able to provide you with the usual quality as quickly as possible." Citizens can use "Elster" to submit their tax returns electronically.
The property tax must be recalculated after a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court. Millions of house, apartment and property owners have therefore had to submit a kind of second tax return since July by the end of October at the latest, usually electronically via "Elster" - with data such as the hall number, year of construction, living space and standard land value.
In principle, property owners must obtain the information themselves. That could be cumbersome. Area, use, year of construction and refurbishment are usually in the construction and purchase documents, as well as co-ownership and separate ownership shares in condominiums. But even with extensions, re-measurements may be necessary and ground values also need to be researched first. The official land value information system (BORIS) of the respective federal state helps with this.
This information is usually subject to payment. "For the property tax, however, the authorities provide the data free of charge," says Sibylle Barent from the Haus owners' association
For apartment owners, it is usually a few hundred euros a year, for owners of larger apartment buildings it can also be four-digit amounts. The owners will probably not find out how much is due in the end until 2025, because the property tax value to be calculated from their data is only one component in the calculation of the property tax - and the municipalities can adjust their assessment rates and thus determine how much they have to pay .
(This article was first published on Monday, July 11, 2022.)
