Many owners wanted to save themselves the trip to a tax consultant or lawyer when it came to property tax, but then failed because of the complex computer programs.
(Photo: dpa)
Frankfurt Due to a decision of the Federal Constitutional Court in 2018, the property values for the assessment of real estate taxes, which have been outdated for decades, have to be reassessed. This forces the owners of around 36 million properties in Germany to submit declarations of assessment in which information is requested that the authorities already essentially know.
Initially, these should be submitted by October 31, 2022. In fact, only around 30 percent of the declarations have been received by the tax authorities.
Now the deadline is extended to January 31, 2023 to update the property values, which date back to 1935 in the east and 1964 in the west. Many owners wanted to save themselves the trip to a tax consultant or lawyer, but then failed because of the complex computer programs.
The extension of the deadline documents the insight of the executive, but does not solve the problem. Anyone who has not submitted by the end of October 2022 will also have difficulties until the end of January 2023.
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The tax authorities should now deal intensively with simplifying the preparation of the declaration in order to enable taxpayers to fulfill their obligations in a realistic manner. Time is running out.
Jens M. Schmittmann is a professor at FOM University and editor-in-chief of the magazines Betriebsberater and Der Steuerberater. This article comes from the cooperation between the Handelsblatt and the trade journal “Der Steuerberater”.
More: You should know these ten pitfalls for your property tax return.
