You have to submit the property tax return by the end of October – if you don't do that, you'll be in trouble
Created: 09/15/2022, 07:00
By: Carina Blumenroth
The property tax return is pending – owners must submit a declaration of their property by the end of October.
The new property tax will come in 2025.
Do you have a house, condo, garden or other property?
Then you are certainly already in the process of gathering all the documents that you need for the property tax return.
You have until the end of October to send your data to your responsible tax office, which will then be used to calculate how high your property tax will be from 2025.
If you do not submit your data, you may have trouble with the tax office.
Property tax: you have to do that
Owners must collect key data about their property and submit the data to the tax office by October 31st.
This can be done, for example, via the online portal ELSTER - but there is also another option for bypassing the online tool.
You must state, among other things, when your house was built and the size of the associated property.
By the way: Even if you are only a tenant, you have to do something and do some work for the landlord or the owner.
The property tax return is due on October 31, 2022 - many owners still have to submit it.
(Iconic image) © Elnur/Imago
Around 36 million properties have to be revalued for property tax
According to information from the portal
Capital
, only 18 percent of the approximately 36 million declarations were submitted nationwide, most of which were submitted via the ELSTER portal, only around half a million reached the tax offices on paper.
Anyone who has already submitted the property tax return can therefore expect relatively quick processing.
Critics of the property tax reform doubt that all property taxpayers will have submitted the data by the end of the period.
An extension of the deadline is requested.
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) also indicated last month that something might have to be done about the deadline.
Some federal states are skeptical as to whether the deadline can be met
Several media report unanimously that there may be an extension of the deadline for filing property tax returns in Baden-Württemberg.
A postponement is conceivable, presumably there should be reminders for owners at the beginning of the year.
It is possible that other federal states will follow suit.
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What is the risk of not complying with the property tax return?
If you, as the owner, are unable to submit the property tax return on time, you must ask the responsible tax office for a postponement.
The responsible financial officer can grant you this, provided there are “justified cases”.
In principle, tax authorities have the option of sanctioning missing or incorrect declarations.
In these cases, for example, a late payment surcharge is conceivable, which usually amounts to several hundred euros.
If there is no reaction after that, a fine can be imposed.
Anyone who categorically refuses or knowingly continues to provide incorrect information must expect the tax office to carry out estimates for the property tax.
As a rule, these are to the detriment of the owners.
Tax tricks: How to save money on your tax return
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Network reactions to the property tax return
The real estate tax is also discussed in the short message service Twitter, there are also owners who still have to submit the declaration.
User DOCEMEDason, for example, criticizes the official language: "I failed to transmit the property tax data.
'Tax authorities' looks like German, but it's a foreign language.
How are normal people supposed to cope with this without a tax consultant?” The tweet is getting positive feedback, and some users are also sending websites to help with the creation.
However, it depends on which state you live in.
User Der Nerd gegen Stephan rather criticizes that the implementation is not made easily accessible to all owners: "Reforming the property tax is certainly right and important.
But the fact that people are left alone with this is reprehensible.
Today it took me half a day to do the stuff for my 80-year-old aunt, who was completely desperate without (knowledge of) computers.”
“I've already started the property tax 3 times and given up again 3 times.
It makes me AGGRESSIVE!” tweets the onion fish user, probably providing an explanation as to why the tax authorities are still waiting for so many property tax returns.