First property tax notices in the mailbox: this is what owners need to know

Created: 05/12/2022 15:34

By: Patricia Huber

The property tax continues to cause confusion.

Now the first notifications are arriving.

Landowners should carefully review the letters, experts advise.

Berlin/Munich – All property owners in Germany must submit a new property tax return by January 31st.

The amount of the tax is then recalculated based on the updated data.

The owners will then be informed with a new decision.

However, there are a few things to consider and those affected should definitely check the relevant notifications from the tax office carefully.

Property tax letters: You should check these two notices

The new property tax will not have to be paid until 2025.

The final decision will probably not end up in the landowners' mailboxes until the end of 2024.

But various letters from the tax office have already arrived.

This is usually the so-called

and the

.

These have been sent out since autumn of this year – often together.

How to check the real estate tax assessment

The

is divided into two sections.

Section A and Section B. Section A provides information about your property and its property tax value.

Here you should check whether the data on the property is correct.

In section B, property owners will find the detailed calculation of the property tax value.

Here it should be checked whether the self-specified data such as standard land value, year of construction, living and usable area and plot area are correctly recorded.

Then, in Section B, there is a series of complicated terms and corresponding numbers.

has summarized how these can be checked

:

• Property interest rate for the property:

  How high this is can be found in paragraph 256 of the Valuation Act (BewG).

• Remaining useful life of the building:

  This consists of the total economic useful life (usually 80 years) minus the age of the building.

  However, it is always at least 24 years.

• Gross profit:

  For this you need the statistically calculated net cold rent, which would have to be paid on average for home ownership.

  A corresponding table for this can be found in Appendix 39 of the BewG.

  This net cold rent times twelve then results in the gross income for the apartment.

• Gross profit for garage parking spaces:

  Garages are also included in the calculation of property tax.

  One costs 35 euros per month.

  These 35 euros are then offset against the rent level (can also be found in the table in Appendix 39) and multiplied by twelve again.

  The gross yield for the property then results from the gross yield for the garages and the gross yield for the apartment.

• Net income of the property:

  This consists of the gross income of the property calculated above minus the management costs.

  How high these are can be found in Appendix 40 of the BewG.

• Capitalized Property Net Income:

  For this number, the net income just calculated is multiplied by the multiplier.

  How high this value is can be found in Appendix 37 BewG.

• Conversion coefficient:

  This value depends on the size of the property and can be found in Appendix 36 BewG.

• Discount factor:

  This factor can be found in the table in Annex 41 BewG.

• Discounted land value:

  This is calculated as follows:

  area x land value x conversion coefficient x discount factor

• Property tax value :

  The property tax value is ultimately the sum of the capitalized net income of the property and the discounted land value

Property Tax Measurement Amount Letter: How to Check It

With the second letter with the

assessment amount, things get a little easier.

Here the property tax value from the first notice is multiplied by the tax index.

This is 0.031 percent for the new property tax.

For uninhabited properties, it is 0.034 percent.

The result is then the tax base amount.

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If the data in the notifications is incorrect, owners can lodge an objection by writing an informal letter.

It must contain the name, address, file number and tax number.

A period of one month applies to the objection and this begins three days after the date on the decision.