Property tax 2022: Homeowners must pay attention to the new tax return on July 1st

Created: 06/21/2022, 04:45 am

By: Felix Busjaeger

Property tax is not only due for new buildings.

Owners have to pay annually.

The property tax is now being reformed in 2022 (symbol image).

© Julian Stratenschulte/dpa

The new property tax 2022 brings a lot of work with the new tax return.

Owners must submit a declaration of determination in July.

Berlin – The property tax 2022 is a topic that occupies many people in Germany these days.

Millions of homeowners and property owners in Germany have now received mail and have been asked to submit a property tax assessment declaration.

Depending on the federal state, this separate and new tax return can entail a lot of work: while the old calculation basis for property tax loses its justification at the end of 2025, landowners have to work together with the tax offices and thus push ahead with the recalculation of property tax.

New property tax 2022: Owners must submit a new tax return with the assessment declaration

It is not surprising that landowners in Germany will have to deal with property tax in the coming months, but they have not always received mail from the tax office.

But there is sometimes a hurry to collect all the necessary information for the documents for the property tax 2022.

Depending on the calculation model, more extensive research may be necessary.

Incidentally, the deadline for the new tax return for property tax 2022 is October 31st.

In the worst case, anyone who misses this risks severe penalties.

In order for the necessary information for property tax to be properly submitted, however, homeowners and homeowners must take a few things into account: The challenge lies in the fact that the states can deviate from the federal model when calculating property tax and are allowed to use their own models.

As a result, different information is required, which forms the basis for the recalculation.

However, it is clear which forms will be filled out for the property tax in 2022: several federal states have published forms for inspection.

The new property tax 2022 is coming: the Federal Constitutional Court already declared the tax invalid in 2018

The current assessment of the property tax was declared invalid by the Federal Constitutional Court in 2018 because it did not comply with the Basic Law.

The core of the stumbling block were outdated standard values ​​that violated the ban on equal treatment.

For this reason, the reform of the property tax was initiated, which must be completed by 2025.

At the turn of the year, the transition period expires and the old calculation of property tax becomes illegal.

For owners in Germany, this means that property tax will still have to be paid according to the old calculation basis in the next few years.

However, since the collection of the new data for the 2022 property tax begins on July 1, homeowners and landowners must work with the tax authorities so that the new property tax values ​​and tax measures can be determined.

Property tax 2022: How must the declaration of assessment be submitted?

Submit a property tax return with Elster

Owners and homeowners in Germany must provide data to the tax authorities from July 1st.

This is done using a property tax declaration for 2022. This tax return for property tax contains different information depending on the federal state and the calculation model used.

The recommended way of submitting the property tax for 2022 is via "Mein Elster".

For this, users must have an account - the same can be used as for the income tax return.

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Anyone who does not have an account with Elster sometimes has to plan several weeks until access has been activated in order to be able to submit the documents for the property tax in the correct form.

In cases of hardship, it is also possible to submit the declaration of assessment for property tax 2022 in paper form.

However, while some federal states prescribe a digital tax, the Free State of Bavaria chose a different route: Here, the tax return for the property tax was also made possible in principle in paper form.

Recalculation of the property tax: How is the property tax calculated in 2022?

As before, the property tax for 2022 will be calculated using a three-stage process: First, the individual tax offices evaluate the properties based on the property tax value, then this value is offset against the tax index.

In a third step, the respective municipality adjusts its assessment rate.

How the property tax is calculated in 2022 remains the same.

The difference, however, lies in the revaluation of the property tax value.

Due to the reform of the property tax, this can be calculated in different ways depending on the federal state.

The data needed for homeowners' and owners' property tax reassessments differs based on the processes that states use.

So it may be that the amount of work will vary in size from time to time.

Property tax return 2022: Which forms must be submitted for property tax

Paragraph 228 paragraph 6 of the Valuation Act stipulates that the declaration for determining the property tax 2022 must be submitted electronically to the tax offices.

Deviating from this, the individual federal states can make it possible for the forms for the tax return of the property tax to be submitted in paper form even in cases of hardship or other reasons.

In Bavaria, for example, a recommendation for digital submission was made.

What is property tax 2022?

The property tax 2022 is a tax that all property owners in Germany have to pay once a year.

The beneficiaries of the tax are the municipalities: they receive around 15 billion euros a year from the income from the property tax – the money is used to finance the local infrastructure, among other things.

The property tax is one of the most important sources of income for municipalities.

Which forms have to be submitted for the new property tax 2022 also differs based on the models used to calculate the property tax.

Many federal states have now published so-called templates for the documents and forms for property tax 2022.

These serve as a guide to the necessary data that owners must provide to the tax authorities.

As reported by the Federal Ministry of Finance, the electronic forms for the property tax return are expected to be available via "Mein Elster" from July 1, 2022.

With "property tax return for private property", a simplified option for submitting the property tax for 2022 was also created.

Federal model of property tax and state models for calculating property tax

The reform of the property tax 2022 is already in full swing and brings a number of calculation models for the property tax that have been decided by politicians.

Because depending on the federal state, a different basis for the recalculation can sometimes be used.

While the federal government specifies a federal model that is used in Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia, the federal states have other models for calculating the property tax for 2022 . An overview:

In Bavaria, there is an area model for the reform of property tax.

In Baden-Württemberg, too, a modified model is used to calculate property tax in 2022.

A modified land value model is to be used.

Hamburg opted for a residential location model for the recalculation.

The area factor model is used in Hesse.

Lower Saxony uses an area-location model.

While some federal states deviate significantly from the federal model when calculating the property tax for 2022, only changed tax indicators are used in Saxony and Saarland.

Property tax 2022: Owners must submit a declaration of determination for recalculation

While the deadline for the assessment declaration for property tax 2022 starts on July 1 and homeowners are almost certain to have a few questions, one thing is certain about the property tax reform: the amount of property tax will continue to be determined by three values ​​in the future: property tax value, tax index and tax rate.

This also makes it clear how the 2022 property tax will be composed from 2025 onwards.

Which data and information are actually decisive for the amount of property tax varies from state to state.

Among other things, the standard land value and the net cold rent as well as the type of property, property area and the age of the building can be decisive for the calculation.

Land reference value for property tax: recalculation starts on July 1st

The land value is used in some models to recalculate property taxes and is a value derived from the average price of a number of similar properties.

It is not to be confused with the price of land.

As a rule, the standard land value is determined by a committee of experts and given per square meter. 

Property tax 2022 tax return: This is now coming to homeowners and property owners

Due to the recalculation of the property tax in 2022, owners in Germany will have a lot of work to do in the coming months, but in the end the additional tax return could also be worthwhile for them.

Since the old calculation basis sometimes used very outdated values, it has sometimes happened that the property tax was considered unjustified in some places.

While owners have to sort their property tax documents in a timely manner, there has been clear criticism of the reform for months: consumer advocates in several federal states had criticized the scope of the information and demanded that the reassessment of the property tax in 2022 had to be simplified in order to avoid owners overwhelm.