Property Tax Reform and New Tax Returns

[Rushrush 286]

So, surprised this hasn't been discussed yet, unless I missed it, but I got the following letter from Expat Tax. It says that you will get a letter in the post but I haven't seen anything yet. Well other than 4 copies of my current assesment along with several letters explaining about property tax reform, but to be honest it made no sense to me. For sure nothing that I have to fill out. 

 

Has anyone else gotten a letter? 

 

Dear Client,
 
If you own property in Germany, you are required to file a tax return for Property Tax purposes in 2022. This is OUTSIDE of a normal annual income tax return and must be submitted separately and much earlier.  Here are the main points, you need to know:
 

• If you own property IN Germany, you need to report (foreign property is not relevant)

• It is not relevant whether you are resident in Germany or not

• You need to report the ownership of ALL properties in Germany (if you own your own home, a holiday home or if you own an investment property)

• All types of property owned by you need to be reported (residential, commercial, developed or undeveloped, farming land, etc.)

• The relevant date for this purpose is 1.1.2022 (Did you own a property in Germany on that date?)

• The purpose of this one-off reporting is a re-evaluation of land and buildings. In most cases, this will result in a rather small adjustment of Property Tax upwards OR downwards (this is indeed possible)

• Adjusted payments as a result of this submission, will only kick in as of the tax year 2025  

• The tax office is supposed to contact each property owner DIRECTLY, starting in April 2022. They will do this in paper format and will not use any existing Power of Attorney for this purpose (for technical reasons they can’t). Correspondence will go to the address of the property owner, not the address of the property itself (unless of course, this is identical). We have reason to believe, that such correspondence will be delayed in a number of cases, particularly if it goes to individuals outside of the country. This is the reason, why we are contacting you now.

• These tax submissions need to go in between July 1^st and October 31^st 2022 in order to avoid late filing penalties. It is an extremely tight deadline, considering that a total of 36 million properties need to be reported at a national level.    

 
If you feel, you need assistance in this context, please do contact your personal consultant at EXPATTAX directly to discuss. We have put together a service package for this purpose, which we are of course happy to send out to you if you are interested.   
 
Please note: In order to meet the deadline and avoid late filing penalties, we need the complete set of information from you by July 31^st, 2022.  This may seem like a very long time, but please do try to address the matter as soon as you can. We will send you a checklist to show you, which details and documents are needed. They are somewhat different from what you are used to in the context of your normal yearly tax filing. So, getting everything organized can sometimes take a good bit of extra time.

 

 

[Feierabend 1,136]

Grundsteuerreform:

https://www.grundsteuererklaerung-fuer-privateigentum.de/

It seems that the required info must be entered digitally, starting July, and the process is intended to be as stress free as possible for the simple minded such as me ...

That'd be a historical first if true! 

[Rushrush 286]

23 hours ago, Feierabend said:

Grundsteuerreform:

https://www.grundsteuererklaerung-fuer-privateigentum.de/

It seems that the required info must be entered digitally, starting July, and the process is intended to be as stress free as possible for the simple minded such as me ...

That'd be a historical first if true! 

Yeah just looked and Hessen isn't on it  

 

I'll drop my steuerbreater an email and see what he says

[PandaMunich 16,598]

41 minutes ago, Rushrush said:

Yeah just looked and Hessen isn't on it  

 

I'll drop my steuerbreater an email and see what he says

Hessen uses the Flächen-Faktor-Verfahren, please see here for an explanation and an example: https://finanzamt.hessen.de/grundsteuerreform/grundsteuer-b-in-hessen

[Rushrush 286]

Thank You. from Deepl tanslation (love the fact you can upload a PDF to the site) says I should get a letter by June!

 

 

[Rushrush 286]

Update, turns out I was worried about nothing got a letter in the mail with a QR code and it took all of 5 minutes to fill out. 

 

Very surprised, was expecting much worse

 

 

[PandaMunich 16,598]

1 hour ago, Rushrush said:

Update, turns out I was worried about nothing got a letter in the mail with a QR code and it took all of 5 minutes to fill out. 

 

Very surprised, was expecting much worse

You do understand that that wasn't the property tax return yet?

 

The property tax return can only be filed starting with 1. July 2022: https://finanzamt.hessen.de/informationen-zur-vorbereitung-auf-die-erklaerungsabgabe-ab-1-juli-2022

Only then will find the necessary forms in the Finanzamt's ELSTER portal: https://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/Content/DE/FAQ/faq-die-neue-grundsteuer.html#doc76948e0c-522b-4df4-9b7e-e445585635a6bodyText16

[JG52 1,022]

2 hours ago, Rushrush said:

Update, turns out I was worried about nothing got a letter in the mail with a QR code and it took all of 5 minutes to fill out. 

 

Very surprised, was expecting much worse

 

Are you sure you didn't complete the 2022 Census instead?  We received a letter that had a QR code and it took about five minutes to complete, but it was for the census.

[Rushrush 286]

1 hour ago, JG52 said:

 

Are you sure you didn't complete the 2022 Census instead?  We received a letter that had a QR code and it took about five minutes to complete, but it was for the census.

Yes it was, Zensus 2022 Gebaeude und Wohnungszaelung,  thought it seems too easy, oh well!

[Frantic 72]

For who has property in Bavaria, this can help

 

https://www.profil.bayern/05-2022/rat/erklaerung-zur-grundsteuer-das-ist-ab-juli-zu-tun/

 

There is also clarified what happened if during this year you bought your first property. 

 

Praxisbeispiel: Abgabepflicht einer Grundsteuererklärung zum Stichtag 1. Januar 2022

Für die Grundsteuerberechnung ab dem Jahr 2025 sind die tatsächlichen Verhältnisse am Stichtag 1. Januar 2022 entscheidend. Zwei Beispiele:

1. Familie Meier hat im Mai 2022 ein Einfamilienhaus erworben. Da Familie Meier am 1. Januar 2022 nicht Eigentümerin des Grundstücks war, ist sie nicht verpflichtet, ab 1. Juli 2022 eine Grundsteuererklärung abzugeben. Dies muss der frühere Eigentümer übernehmen, auch wenn er mittlerweile das Grundstück verkauft hat. Hinweis: Ein reiner Eigentümerwechsel durch zum Beispiel Kauf, Schenkung oder Erbfall muss gegenüber dem Fiskus nicht gesondert erklärt werden. Dieser übernimmt die Zurechnung von Amts wegen.
2. Eine Genossenschaft hat im Februar 2022 eine Gewerbeimmobilie veräußert. Da die Genossenschaft am 1. Januar 2022 Eigentümerin des Grundstücks war, ist die Genossenschaft verpflichtet, ab 1. Juli 2022 eine Grundsteuererklärung abzugeben, auch wenn sie nicht mehr Eigentümerin der Immobilie ist.

 

So the "snapshot" with the list of owner that must do this Grundsteuererklärung has been taken on 1st of Jan 2022. 

I am by the way in the case mentioned in the above example. Just guessing if I have to be sure in someway that who is selling me his property will do this Grundsteuererklärung or I can avoid to care about it.

[Rushrush 286]

What happens to those of us, and I suspect it will not be a small number, that simply can't won't fill out the new forms? I emailed my steuerbreater and he said there no way in God's green earth he could take this on. I'm required to submit it electronically but I don't have an ELSTER account and what happens if I try and create a new one will this mess up my current tax returns. I . I'm pretty up on this stuff and I'm struggling to understand it,  what's the average Herr Joe to do. 

[PandaMunich 16,598]

37 minutes ago, Rushrush said:

I'm required to submit it electronically but I don't have an ELSTER account and what happens if I try and create a new one will this mess up my current tax returns. I'm pretty up on this stuff and I'm struggling to understand it,  what's the average Herr Joe to do. 

Don't worry, getting an ELSTER certificate will not mess up your current tax returns, they were signed with the Steuerberater's certificate, there is no connection to your new ELSTER certificate.

You seem to think that through getting an ELSTER account (into which you login using the ELSTER certificate saved on your computer, which is a .pfx file) you will suddenly have access to you entire tax return filing history.

It doesn't work like, you will find a completely empty account, in which you can then file the property tax return.

 

If you really can't manage to file electronically in ELSTER, you can also file on paper for properties located in Hessen: https://www-fr-de.translate.goog/rhein-main/hessen-land-beraet-eigentuemer-bei-der-neuen-grundsteuer-91544161.html?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp

• "While the entries should be made via the online portal "Elster", taxpayers can also receive a paper form upon request. Since most of the information on the living space or the parcel of their property is available, the declaration is not complicated, Roßberg emphasised."

[MunichLocal 1]

Hi All and Panda,

A quick question regarding Grundsteuererklärung, for under construction buildings where the Notar is done in 2021 and

handover is in 2022, do we need to submit Grundsteuererklärung?

 

Thank you

 

[PandaMunich 16,598]

Yes.

Officially, you would need to file two Grundsteuererklärungen, one now, reflecting the status on 1. January 2022 and again another one after the house has been finished.

 

Or you simply pretend that everything has already been finished and declare that "finished" status right away.

After all, by 2025, which is when the Finanzamt will first use what you declared, it will have long been finished.

 

[MunichLocal 1]

Thank you Panda

[HEM 11,079]

Anyone had experience with a garage in Anlage Grundstück?

 

We don't have one but we are having to fill out the Erklärung & the Anlage Grundstück for mother-in-law (shes 92).

 

MIL has a garage.  In Anlage Grundstück (line #10) its clear we place a "1" in there.

 

From MIL's documents we have an area for the house & also for the garage.

In the Anleitung for lines #11 to #19  I see no further mention of garages.

Do I ignore the garage or de I sum the house & garage areas & enter into the appropriate line in  #11 to #19?

 

All advice gratefully received.

 

[JG52 1,022]

I might be mistaken, but I think in the rules for Hessen, the garage was not reportable if it was less than 30 square meters (or something like that).

[HEM 11,079]

Documents we have indicate its 27 square meters.

[PandaMunich 16,598]

2 hours ago, HEM said:

In the Anleitung for lines #11 to #19  I see no further mention of garages.

Do I ignore the garage or de I sum the house & garage areas & enter into the appropriate line in  #11 to #19?

Please read: https://grundsteuer.de/steuererklaerung/anlage-grundstueck/garagen-parkplaetze

[HEM 11,079]

12 hours ago, PandaMunich said:

Please read: https://grundsteuer.de/steuererklaerung/anlage-grundstueck/garagen-parkplaetze

 

Many thanks Panda - I was hoping that you would respond.

 

MIL's location is Schleswig-Holstein which means "Bundesmodell" with Anlage Grundstück.

Thus as I read the linked document we only need to enter a "1" into Zeile #10.