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Property tax “unconstitutional”: law professor advises owners in several federal states to sue

2022-12-07T04:04:27.868Z


Property tax “unconstitutional”: law professor advises owners in several federal states to sue Created: 2022-12-07 04:56 By: Lisa Mayerhofer The deadline for the property tax return is the end of January. The new property tax should then apply from 2025. However, law professor Gregor Kirchhof considers the federal property tax law to be unconstitutional. Berlin – The new property tax calculati


Property tax “unconstitutional”: law professor advises owners in several federal states to sue

Created: 2022-12-07 04:56

By: Lisa Mayerhofer

The deadline for the property tax return is the end of January.

The new property tax should then apply from 2025.

However, law professor Gregor Kirchhof considers the federal property tax law to be unconstitutional.

Berlin – The new property tax calculation is to apply from 2025.

Therefore, all owners in Germany must submit a property tax return by the end of January.

But even before that, there is trouble with the property tax reform - many owners are overwhelmed with filling out the forms for the property tax return and experts even consider the federal property tax law to be unconstitutional.

Property tax reform: 36 million properties have to be recalculated

The property tax reform was initiated at the request of the Federal Constitutional Court.

Most recently, the tax authorities calculated the value of a property based on completely outdated data, from 1935 in East Germany and from 1964 in West Germany.

Almost 36 million properties now have to be revalued for the recalculation.

The tax authorities are thus faced with one of their largest projects in post-war history.

They need data from all owners.

Usually it is about the plot and living space, the type of building, years of construction and the so-called land value, which the owners have to upload in a kind of additional tax return via the "Elster" tax software or a portal of the Ministry of Finance.

However, the owners have to provide different data depending on the federal state in which their property, house or apartment is located.

Because the federal states use different models.

There is the federal model that most states use.

Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hamburg, Hesse and Lower Saxony are stepping out of line with their own property tax model.

Property tax: Federal model and model of Baden-Württemberg "unconstitutional"

The federal model and the Baden-Württemberg model in particular have been criticized by experts.

Constitutional lawyer Gregor Kirchhof, holder of the chair for public law, financial law and tax law at the University of Augsburg, even considers it unconstitutional.

From 2025, the new property tax calculation will apply.

(symbol photo) © Armin Weigel/dpa

In an interview with

focus.de

, he therefore advises affected owners to “raise an objection to the property tax assessment and then sue, while observing the deadlines”.

He explains: “I am aware that this affects a large number of cases.

But it's not about not paying property tax.

The assessment of taxes must be realistic and correspond to the principle of ability to pay.

There is still time to correct the tax laws.”

But why, according to Kirchhof, are these models unconstitutional?

One problem is that the federal legislature decided to further develop the standard values ​​for real estate tax assessment, which the Federal Constitutional Court had actually criticized.

The constitutional lawyer sums up to

focus.de

: “A very difficult task.

A simplification in line with equality should actually succeed.

But the system is still too complicated.” The many parameters would not combine “to form a logical evaluation system”.

"The federal property tax is therefore already contrary to equality," Kirchhoff told the news portal.

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Property tax and standard land values: problem child Baden-Württemberg

According to the professor, this is about the standard land values.

He explains at

focus.de

: “As the name suggests, these are guideline values ​​and therefore imprecise parameters.

Because the values ​​are imprecise, tax law, when used for other taxes, allows counter-evidence of a more realistic value.

However, this rebuttal was denied to taxpayers in the case of the federal property tax and in part also in the case of the tax in Baden-Württemberg, because the mass procedure with too many counter-evidence would be too costly.

However, the Federal Fiscal Court emphasizes that the inaccurate values ​​lead to a tax that violates equality if the evidence to the contrary is not allowed.”

According to Kirchhof, the implementation “completely failed”, especially in Baden-Württemberg.

“According to the model for the assessment of the property tax, real estate plays no role.

However, levying a property tax that is aimed at the standard land values ​​and the size of the property, but not at the buildings that are on it, is clearly contrary to equality," says the constitutional lawyer to the news portal.

Because: In Baden-Württemberg, owners of property of the same size have to pay the same property tax - regardless of whether it is a villa or a shack.

According to Kirchhoff, this cannot be justified in terms of equality law.

Property tax reform: praise for Bavaria, Hesse, Hamburg and Lower Saxony

The assessment rates of the municipalities, which ultimately determine how much the property tax will be for the individual owners, could not change that much.

Because since the unit values ​​are very unequal, the new property tax values ​​would lead to very different burdens compared to the applicable tax, Kirchhoff explains to

focus.de

.

"The taxpayer who compares the old tax burden with the new one and both with a neighbor will be a bit perplexed," predicts the constitutional lawyer.

But Kirchhof also has praise for the property tax reform – as it is being implemented in the other federal states.

Bavaria has launched a simple surface model for this;

Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Hesse would have added a value component to this.

The constitutional lawyer praises: “I consider these four state laws to be very efficient and constitutional.

They are role models of how modern tax laws can succeed.”

With material from the dpa

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-12-07

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