Almost 40 percent of property tax returns are still missing

Berlin With less than two weeks to go before the deadline, many property owners are still in Germany no property tax return filed. Up to and including January 17, the rate of declarations received nationwide was 57.4 percent, the Federal Ministry of Finance informed the Handelsblatt on request.

Around 49.8 percent of the tax returns submitted to date were therefore transmitted electronically via the Elster tax portal. In addition, around 7.6 percent of the total expected declarations of determination were received on a paper form.

This means that millions of tax returns are still missing shortly before the deadline. As a result of the property tax reform passed in 2019, new methods for calculating the property taxalmost 36 million pieces of land and real estate need to be revalued.

Because of the sluggish return, the finance ministers from the federal states have already extended the deadline for submitting property tax returns by three months. Instead of October 31, 2022, taxpayers now have until January 31, 2023 to submit their return.