Shortly before the end of the filing deadline, more than a third of all property tax returns are still missing in Bavaria. Up to and including Wednesday, more than four million property tax returns were submitted across Bavaria, as the Ministry of Finance announced on request. This corresponds to around 62 percent of the declarations to be submitted.
Property owners have until January 31 to submit their tax return to the tax office. The submission deadline was originally scheduled for the end of October 2022, but this deadline had been extended throughout Germany. “A further extension of the deadline is currently not planned,” said a spokesman for the Ministry of Finance. “If citizens do not submit a property tax return – as with all other types of tax – various measures can be considered, such as late payment penalties or, ultimately, estimates,” said the spokesman.
However, the financial administration will take into account that property tax is a “new law”. “Therefore, as a first step, the owners are reminded of their obligation to pay taxes. In principle, however, we urgently recommend submitting the property tax return as soon as possible in order to avoid future onerous measures.”
From 2025 onwards, the property tax for more than six million economic units in Bavaria will be calculated on a new assessment basis. The background is a decision by the Federal Constitutional Court in 2018, according to which the previous assessment basis in Germany is unconstitutional.
In Bavaria, the recalculation is based on its own model, since the federal model is “too bureaucratic” for the government. In the negotiations between the federal and state governments, the Free State had enforced a state opening clause after a dispute with the federal government. While the value of the property is to be taken into account in the federal model based on information such as the year of construction and the standard land value, a pure area model is being implemented in Bavaria.
The revenue from the property tax will remain with the municipalities in the future. These finance important public services such as infrastructure, childcare, playgrounds and cultural facilities. The municipalities need the property tax amounts to be determined by the tax authorities as early as possible in order to be able to set their assessment rates for the new property tax that will apply from 2025 and to be able to send notifications.