Property tax return: Property tax return: madness or reasonable effort?

Dusseldorf It was first at the end of October, then at the end of January and in Bavaria now even at the end of April, until property owners have to submit their property tax returns. But every deadline ends at some point. Since this was the case in most federal states on Tuesday, this is reason enough to ask the Handelsblatt readers about their experiences.

In fact, the picture is quite mixed. There are those who report “no problems at all”. A reader writes that her property tax return for a single-family home was “relatively easy”, but also because she was able to draw on certain prior knowledge. “For an absolute layman with several properties, I imagine it would be difficult to fill out the forms,” ​​she says.

Others report exactly this, for example that they had to “work through it a little longer” “until all the entries were correct”. Another reader writes: “If you pulled yourself together, read everything three times and then used the online version with its many help texts, then it honestly wasn’t a problem.” He was really surprised that it went so quickly, says another Reader who had put off the explanation for a long time and then used a help portal.

However, not everyone has obviously had such positive experiences, others seem to be “desperate” to fill them out, “because the system (Elster) blocks in the case of incorrect entries that are not clearly recognizable,” says one reader. Another reports that he has not received any support from the tax authorities. These were overloaded. “And the Bavarian State Tax Office could not even explain how it is ensured that a property tax return is also submitted for all properties,” he continues to complain.

Another sums it up: “The state makes it easy for itself and forces its citizens to enter data for free that they have to search for from state databases beforehand.” He fears that – without wanting to – he has not entered everything correctly.

In order to avoid this, some people choose the easy way: they hire their tax advisor.

We have put together a selection for you from the letters from the Handelsblatt readers.

Absolutely seamless

“For my part, I can attest that I had no problems whatsoever with Elster and that the entire process went absolutely smoothly for me right through to the final sending of the declaration.

However, I would also count myself in the group of people who are ‘good with computers’. In the circle of relatives and acquaintances, many have already failed because of the complicated registration procedure. First the postal letter with access data, which is followed by a registration process in Elster, during which a certificate file must be generated and saved on the computer so that it can be found again so that it can be used the next time you log in – in engineering circles this would be called ‘overdone’ .

In my experience, quite a few have not even tried to actually submit the property tax return in electronic form out of frustration with the registration process.

In the end, for many people, the only option was the time-consuming and error-prone detour via the paper form – a pity, because in my opinion the electronic version was very intuitive to use, since you were only shown the forms you needed for your own case and there were plenty of them too Help texts were equipped.
Marcel Ruf

The state makes it easy for itself

“The state makes it easy for itself and forces its citizens to enter data free of charge, which they have to search for in state databases beforehand. Regulatory verification and correction of this data may take longer than official entry.

The program was not structured logically, you (and woman) were not guided. I’m sure I didn’t enter everything correctly – without wanting to.”
Ulrich Harms

Honestly no problem

“If you pulled yourself together, read everything through three times and then used the online version with its many help texts, then honestly it wasn’t a problem. The property is just something long-term, and it sometimes needs a more intensive work than just collecting rent or increases in value.”
Konrad Fussl

>> Read also: When it makes sense to object to the property tax assessment

The tax consultant as the obvious solution

“Surprise, surprise: I asked my tax advisor to do this.

Like millions of other taxpayers, I have been doing my income tax return through a tax advisor for years. So it was more than obvious to entrust him with the property tax return – wasn’t it?

The costs for this were manageable. Especially since these were and are essentially only ‘one-time costs’. The Treasury will probably not present any further new regulations on property tax anytime soon, at least I assume so.”
Klaus Kuspert

Apartment in Berlin versus apartment in Ulm

“Berlin uses the federal platform. Very user-friendly and easy to fill out even for inexperienced users – one hour.

Baden-Württemberg uses Elster. Very complicated, hardly understandable explanations in the form of tapeworm box sentences. Denominator, numerator, corridor, fractional community, incorrect references to the system, etc. pp. – gone half a Sunday.”
Catherine Stoye

A one followed by a comma and three zeros?

“I voted for Elster and almost failed when I was asked to declare my ownership interest in my property. Who came up with the idea that you have to enter the one with a comma and three zeros? Only the explanation in the paper version saved me.

Or as my computer scientist son says: ‘Whoever pays badly gets bad computer scientists, and they write bad programs!'”
Volker Koss

It gets easier every time

“I made the declaration (Baden-Württemberg) for myself and four related seniors. The first one took me a little longer to get all the entries correct; the other four went very quickly.

I think the pure land value model makes it manageable. But I can also understand that registration, obtaining information and inputting it (over)challenges many people.”
Danny Reish

Why does it have to be so complicated?

“Due to digitization and networking, the financial authorities already have a great deal of information about the properties to be recorded.

Why then does a survey of the owners have to be so complicated that even competent people despair of filling it out, because the system (Elster) blocks ‘incorrect entries’ that are not clearly recognizable. The software for the evaluation should become more intelligent using known data.”
Reiner v. Haehling

jerk

“I did nine property tax returns in 45 minutes.”
Jorg Schafhausen

long done

“I’ve long since completed the property tax return. In a single-family home, that was relatively easy for me. It took about 50 minutes.

My many years of work as a corporate customer advisor was very helpful here, as during my training and afterwards you constantly had to deal with the land register, cadastral map and standard land values. In appreciation of that, I didn’t need any help.

For an absolute layman with several properties, I imagine it would be difficult to fill out the forms.”
Monica Buter

>> Read also: Bavaria extends the deadline for property tax returns to the end of April

Measured with double standards?

“There was no support (overload) from the tax offices! And the Bavarian State Tax Office could not even explain how it is ensured that a property tax return is also submitted for all properties.

For its approximately 26,000 properties, the federal government will only issue the declarations ‘according to the current planning’ by the end of September – thus breaking its own deadline (end of January 2023). Politicians have promised that the reform will be ‘revenue-neutral’. (Many cities and municipalities have only raised their assessment rates). So much for the ‘principle of equality’ according to the Basic Law.”
Horst Schilling

Do we trust pre-filled forms?

“Yes, the revaluation of land is not exactly trivial and not uniform nationwide. And yes, most of the required data is in principle available to the tax authorities and the forms could have been at least partially pre-filled.

But do we trust pre-filled forms and do without controls? No, so we can’t avoid gathering the relevant data anyway. Incidentally, this data should be available to every property owner (land register, purchase agreement, etc.), and they are not that numerous.

With Elster Online – which I think is a very good application – I created and sent declarations for a condominium and a two-family house (both in North Rhine-Westphalia, but different municipalities, assessment rates, rent levels) at an early stage without any problems and in a manageable amount of time.

I offered property tax filing help through a neighborhood network, but nobody asked for help. I can’t understand the whining and the complaining at all. And the hesitators are now making life difficult for the authorities.”
Volker Grunewald

Really surprised that it went so quickly

“Well, I put off the explanation of the negative experience reports from my circle of acquaintances for a long time. The extension of the deadline was just right for me. But – hey presto it was already January.

Well, and then I did the explanation on a Sunday afternoon with the simplified portal in less than 30 minutes. I was really surprised that it happened so quickly.”
Mario Brenzel

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