Good news for everyone who likes to put off unpleasant tasks. As Federal Minister of Finance Christian Lindner lets the citizens know, the federal and state governments have agreed to extend the deadline for the particularly complex property tax return once.
The submission deadline for the property tax return will be extended once nationwide from the end of October to the end of January 2023. This was announced by Federal Minister of Finance Christian Lindner and the Ministry of Finance in Rhineland-Palatinate. The measure gives taxpayers, tax authorities and tax consultants "air". In addition, there are currently other concerns and tasks that we have to take care of, Lindner wrote on Twitter.
It was actually planned that real estate and land owners only have until October 31 of this year to send their property tax returns to the tax office. However, of the total of 36 million declarations due, only about 20 percent of those affected have so far complied with this obligation.
But as is now known, the federal and state governments have agreed to extend the deadline to January 31, 2023. The extension of the deadline is intended to relieve both citizens and companies as well as the tax offices. This is to ensure that citizens and companies are not overwhelmed with procedures for late property tax returns in times of crisis. The federal and state governments also feared that the tax offices would be overwhelmed with countless requests for extensions of deadlines, reports the "Handelsblatt".
The fact that citizens have difficulties with the declaration at all is also due to the fact that they have to collect the necessary documents themselves from the state authorities. In addition, there are different property tax models depending on the federal state as a result of the reform. Which makes the property tax return complicated, as experts complain. In addition, taxpayers have not been asked in writing to submit a declaration in all federal states. In addition, the declaration must be submitted in electronic form, which poses problems for senior citizens in particular. In mid-July there were technical difficulties with the ELSTER portal of the tax offices, the tax platform was temporarily unavailable.
Apart from that, the following applies: Postponed is not cancelled. There will therefore probably be no further delay. If the new deadline is missed, the same rules apply as for the late submission of an income tax return, as explained by the Federal Association of Income Tax Assistance Associations (BVL). In this case, tax offices can initially set a new deadline for submission with a reminder, but this is not mandatory. Then fines and surcharges for delays threatened. The amounts of both amounts are regulated by law, but the tax authorities have discretionary powers when it comes to fines.
According to the BVL, the fine is initially threatened and a further deadline for submitting the declaration is set. If the deadline expires without the declaration having been submitted, the penalty payment will be assessed. For the first omission, the fine is between 25 and 250 euros, sometimes more. A single fine may not exceed an amount of EUR 25,000.
The amount of the delay surcharge is 0.25 percent of the assessed tax, but at least 25 euros for each started month of the delay that has occurred.
The background to the property tax return is that a new property tax calculation is to apply from 2025. After a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court, the federal and state governments agreed on a reform of the property tax in 2019.
