The filing deadline for property tax ends at midnight. And millions of Germans have not yet submitted their tax returns. Elster, the official online tax platform, is likely to have significantly more visitors than normal today.
It all comes to an end, on January 31, 2023 (with the exception of Bavaria) the deadline for submitting the property tax return expires. If you look at other experiences with tax deadlines, the picture is always the same: at the beginning there is a peak in taxes, in between there is a lot of lull and shortly before the end Elster is overrun by those who have pushed everything out until the last second .
What can you do if you fail to submit your declaration by the deadline? Keep calm, because it probably won’t get to you right away.
A deadline is a deadline and especially in Germany we take it very seriously. Nevertheless, from February 1st, the world will not immediately be flooded with dunning notices from the tax authorities. It can be assumed that declarations that arrive in the days after the deadline will also be processed as normal.
But that shouldn’t be an invitation to push out the property tax declaration even further. Anyone who does not submit will probably get another request to submit from the tax office with a new deadline. Anyone who lets that pass must expect penalties and the fact that the tax office will ultimately estimate the required values themselves. In most cases, these estimates should then lead to a property tax that is too high.
Anyone who fails with Elster should look for a solution that authenticates their users in other ways. WISO property tax and Smartsteuer do not expect an Elster certificate from the user themselves, but transmit it to the tax office via the official interface.
The reform for the new property tax is complex – and this year it will require owners. You have to submit some data to the tax office. You have to be very precise and observe special deadlines. In our large guide you will find all the information you need to know in a compact form.
When it comes to income tax, it is common practice for those who don’t like Elster to print out the declaration and send it by post, or if time is short, submit the documents directly to the responsible tax office.
This is not the case with property tax, at least not throughout Germany. The Ministry of Finance’s FAQ on the subject of property tax expressly states that “there is an obligation to submit the declaration for determining the property tax value electronically”.
However, the individual federal states sometimes provide paper forms. So in many cases it is still possible to rely on paper. We give you an overview in this article.
With the WISO tax program, the property tax declaration can now be made in no time at all. Via FOCUS online you can get the tax software at an exclusive special price of only 26.99 euros. Normal price is 29.99 euros.
