Despite the extended deadline, around 13 percent of property tax returns in Bavaria have not yet been submitted. Across the country, property tax returns have to be submitted for around 6.5 million economic units, and up to and including May 2, more than 5.6 million property tax returns (electronically and on paper) had been received across Bavaria (electronically and on paper), a spokesman for the Ministry of Finance said on Wednesday in Munich at the request of the German press agency with. This corresponds to around 87 percent of the property tax returns to be submitted – around two thirds of the property tax returns were submitted electronically.
Bavaria was the only federal state to have extended the submission deadline for property tax returns by a further three months to April 30th. In fact, due to the Sunday and public holiday, it only ended at the end of May 2nd. Originally, the deadline would have expired at the end of January, after a nationwide extension of three months. The end of October 2022 was originally planned.
The Free State had reacted to the slow submission of the declarations by the end of January by extending the deadline again. Shortly before the deadline at that time, data from almost a third of all property owners was still missing – although the rates were quite similar nationwide at the time.
Anyone who has not yet submitted their tax return does not have to fear any default penalties or the like, as this is new law, according to the ministry. First of all, the owners of land would be reminded of their obligation to pay the fee. However, if you still do not respond, you must expect surcharges for missing the deadline.
From 2025 onwards, property tax 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 a separate model because the state government finds the federal model “too bureaucratic”. In the negotiations between the federal and state governments, the Free State had enforced a state opening clause. While in the federal model the value of the property is to be determined on the basis of information such as the year of construction and the standard land value, a pure area model is implemented in Bavaria. The revenue from the property tax will remain solely with the municipalities in the future.