Schwabbruck increases property and trade tax

Created: 11/04/2022, 4:00 p.m

By: Elena Siegl

Schwabbruck increases property and trade tax (symbol image).

© Daniel Reinhardt

The timing is extremely bad, but the municipality has no choice but to increase taxes, as Treasurer Andrea Sepp put it.

Schwabbruck – Andrea Sepp, treasurer of the Altenstadt administrative community, made it clear at the recent Schwabbruck municipal council meeting that bad years lie behind the community because of Corona and that the energy problem is now presenting citizens with financial challenges.

Nevertheless, the town is urged to increase the assessment rates for property and trade tax now - even if it is probably "the wrong time".

Otherwise, the community would face massive problems.

The 2023 budget would probably come back from the district office, and the necessary borrowing, for example for the kindergarten and rectory projects, would also not be approved.

Sepp had already announced the necessary tax increase at the 2022 budget meeting in July.

In the administrative budget, a free financial margin of only 8,000 euros resulted at that time, taking into account the minimum allocation to cover repayments.

At the most recent meeting, Sepp referred to Article 62 of the Municipal Code, according to which a municipality must generate the necessary income from taxes in order to fulfill its (obligatory) tasks if the other income is not sufficient.

"This is currently the case with the municipality of Schwabbruck," says Sepp.

Taxes last increased in 2005

The taxes were last increased in 2005.

Since then, the rate of assessment for property tax A has been 360 per cent.

The state average was 395.4% in 2021. In the future, Sepp suggested, the assessment rate in Schwabbruck should be 400%.

In the case of property tax B, the assessment rate used to be 330% (national average 364.2%), in the future it should also be 400%.

Trade tax is to be increased from 310% to 380% (national average 316%).

In order to illustrate the effects of the increases on citizens, Sepp presented examples: The previous tax amount for an agricultural property would increase by 8.71 euros to 87.12 euros.

For a detached house from 1993, instead of 211.46 euros, 256.32 euros would be due in future, i.e. 44.86 euros more.

A trade with a very high tax amount of 2359 euros would have to pay 2859 euros if property tax B was increased in the future.

(By the way: everything from the region is now also available in our regular Schongau newsletter.)

"My enthusiasm is limited" - but no other option

With the administration's proposal, the municipality would also receive an amount of almost 50,000 euros, explained Sepp.

"I think that's the only way," she said regarding a demand from Siegfried Seelos, only to increase the most necessary.

"Everyone has to save.

The increase will hit some people harder.

The worst thing you can do with money is give it to the state," says Seelos.

"My enthusiasm is limited," said Hubert Waibel.

But he saw that there was no other way.

The statute requires a tax increase.

Silvia Richter explained that she was torn and questioned whether the increase in assessment rates was in order in view of the forthcoming new property tax.

Although the effects of this are not yet foreseeable - it has been assured that little will change - Sepp emphasized that this will only apply from 2025.

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Christian Huber wanted to know whether an additional income of 47,000 euros would be enough in view of the high costs of building the kindergarten.

This costs a lot of money, but there are also many grants, says Sepp.

"We don't do chicimicki"

Norbert Schreiber said that the fact that an amount of just under 50,000 euros helps, which is comparatively small for a municipality, is alarming.

He criticized that in the past smaller increases were missed and that is why the jump is now so big.

However, due to the energy crisis, the community is also expecting higher spending.

Mayor Norbert Essich, meanwhile, repeated his statement from the budget session: "We don't do chicimicki".

When it comes to expanding the kindergarten, the cheapest option has already been decided on.

Ensuring that there are enough places in kindergarten is the task of the municipality, which must be done justice to.

"We're a long way from making something gilded," says Essich.

When he sees the sums other communities spend on power devices because of a possible blackout, he becomes "very dizzy".

The tax increases proposed by the administration were unanimously approved by the municipal council.

You can find more current news from the region around Schongau at Merkur.de/Schongau.