As of: February 13, 2024, 3:15 p.m
By: Fabian Hartmann
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Property tax assessment rates have been rising for years.
For 2024, experts expect that private properties will be more affected than commercial properties.
Munich - It's bad news for property owners: After the property tax was raised more than ever since 2016 in 2022, many owners will face the next property tax increase in 2023.
Over a hundred communities with more than 20,000 residents increased their property tax rates last year, some of them significantly.
This emerges from a current evaluation, which was first reported by
Focus Online
.
As a result of its increase, the average weighted assessment rate of property tax B rose by 5 percentage points to 554 percent, as shown in the 2023 assessment rate survey by the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK).
The year before, the national average assessment rate was 549 percent.
The property tax reform could make property owners pay as early as 2024 next year
Property tax B has therefore been subject to a constant increase in prices for several years.
The DIHK primarily sees three factors for its upward movement in recent years.
First of all, compared to previous years, municipal financial supervision in many countries is “significantly more active in the run-up to the approval of municipal budgets,” according to the report.
She is also increasingly calling on municipalities to close coverage gaps through additional revenue.
New buildings in a field or in a new housing development in Glessen (NRW) © IMAGO/Christoph Hardt
Secondly, changes in the respective municipal financial equalization systems, especially the increase in the so-called leveling assessment rate, led to catch-up increases in the municipalities that had previously been below this assessment rate.
And thirdly, it is now a matter of securing the revenue from the new assessment base for property tax with effect from 2025.
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DIHK emphasizes the wide range of assessment rate increases between municipalities
A total of 103 municipalities increased the assessment rates for property tax B last year.
According to the IHK assessment rate survey, the range of increases in the different municipalities is very large overall.
Accordingly, 26 municipalities increased their assessment rate by between 20 and 49 points.
A total of 38 municipalities increased their property tax assessment rates by 50 and 100 percentage points - and 17 municipalities even increased their property tax rate by more than 100 percentage points.
The absolute top value for the assessment rate increases is Bad Homburg vor der Höhe in Hesse - the property tax assessment rate there was increased by a whopping 345 percentage points last year.
This brings it up to a total of 690 percent in the Hessian district town.
Behind it is Xanten in North Rhine-Westphalia with an increase of 200 points to a total of 850 percent, as well as the Hessian city of Oberursel with an increase of 197 to a total of 947 percentage points.
This is how much the property tax assessment rates were increased in the federal states in 2023
Among the regional states, the assessment rate for property tax B remained unchanged last year only in the eastern German federal states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia.
In another eastern German state, however, they rose sharply: in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Here the property tax assessment rate was increased by 15 percentage points in 2023.
Property tax B was increased particularly sharply in Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse.
In both federal states it rose by 13 percentage points.
Of all municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants, a total of 25 cities now have a property tax B assessment rate of 800 percentage points or more, five more than in 2022.
In addition to Gladbeck in North Rhine-Westphalia and Oberursel in Hesse, these also include Herten (920 percent), Witten (910 percent) and Offenbach in Hesse (895 percent).
In principle, Hesse's assessment rates are above the German average.
Bavaria |
452% (2015) |
458% (2019) |
461% (2023) |
|---|---|---|---|
Bremen |
572% (2015) |
687% (2019) |
687% (2023) |
Hesse |
482% (2015) |
524% (2019) |
553% (2023) |
Lower Saxony |
447% (2015) |
465% (2019) |
481% (2023) |
North Rhine-Westphalia |
553% (2015) |
590% (2019) |
612% (2023) |
Saxony |
565% (2015) |
570% (2019) |
581% (2023) |
Experts fear that property tax reform could lead to significantly higher costs as early as 2024
But after the constant increases in property tax rates in recent years, what will property owners have to expect in 2024?
Will consumers have to expect further increases this year?
In North Rhine-Westphalia, at least, people are concerned about possible new increases in assessment rates this year.
“The calculations in the municipalities are already underway.
And they point to a major nuisance: According to the previous measurements, it amounts to a massive shift to the detriment of private owners,” said Christoph Lantscheidt, Vice President of the Association of Cities and Municipalities of North Rhine-Westphalia and Mayor of the City of Kamp-Lintfort
Focus Online
.
It is also problematic that private properties are subject to significantly greater burdens than commercial properties due to the higher assessment rates.
Things cannot stay as they are now; the state of North Rhine-Westphalia urgently needs to take countermeasures.
“In my opinion, further burdens on citizens can no longer be explained,” emphasizes Lantscheidt.
(
Fabian Hartmann)