recalculation
Lindner wants to extend the deadline for property tax
The tax portal Elster. photo
© Bernd Weißbrod/dpa
The tax offices still have little response to the new property tax return. The Finance Minister is therefore thinking aloud about extending the deadline – and promptly receives criticism.
According to the Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner, only a quarter to a third of the property owners have submitted the new property tax return. He therefore wants to seek talks with the federal states this week in order to extend the submission deadline by a few months, said the FDP politician on Wednesday in the RTL/ntv program Frühstart.
“My offer: We will extend the deadline for submitting the property tax return by a reasonable period of time.” It is important to be “realistic” now: Some citizens, especially older landowners, feel overwhelmed with the tax return. There were also software problems.
The submission deadline is at the end of October. It is not based on a federal regulation, but on determinations made by the federal states. From 2025, a new property tax calculation is to apply. To do this, almost 36 million properties in Germany have to be revalued. This is done on the basis of information that all owners must submit – the tax authorities have been receiving the data since July 1st.
Criticism came from North Rhine-Westphalia. It would be more expedient if Lindner had first sought talks with the state finance minister “instead of communicating such announcements via the press,” said NRW Finance Minister Marcus Optendrenk of the German Press Agency.
“We should first wait for further developments and agree on a uniform line at federal and state level,” recommended the CDU politician. That is planned anyway at the next conference of finance ministers. “There is no reason to jump ahead of these talks and act frantically.”