Taxes

Property tax reform

Property tax will be recalculated from 2025. To this end, all properties in Germany will be revalued by the relevant tax offices from 2022. Property tax based on the new property tax values will be payable for the first time from January 1, 2025. Until then, the previous standard values and property tax assessment amounts will continue to apply.

For the new property tax from 2025, the owner must submit a tax return to the relevant tax office from July 1 to October 31, 2022 for each developed or undeveloped plot of land or agricultural and forestry business (this also includes individual agricultural and forestry plots) and condominiums. In the case of land encumbered with a heritable building right, the heritable building right holder is obliged to submit a declaration.

Information letter from May 2022

Since May 2022, the tax office has been sending information letters to the owners of properties in Gera. In addition to the file number, the information letter also shows the name of the parcel or a large part of the parcels stored under the file number. The procedure is also explained and telephone numbers for questions at the tax offices are provided. Furthermore, reference is made to the Grundsteuer Viewer Thüringen (https://thueringenviewer.thueringen.de/thviewer/grundsteuer.html), where the necessary property-related data such as district number, parcel number, official area, standard land value or yield measurement number (only for agriculture and forestry) can be accessed from July 1, 2022 at the latest. In the case of co-ownership, it is possible that no information letter will be received. In this case, another co-owner may have been contacted.

Further information on the property tax reform in Thuringia can be found at: https://finanzen.thueringen.de/themen/steuern/grundsteuer
You can also ask questions about property tax during the usual office hours of the tax offices by calling the hotline on 0361 / 57 36 11 800.

Trade tax: Constitutional revision of the interest rate

Since last week, the municipal treasury has been implementing the constitutional recalculation of the federal trade tax interest rate with retroactive effect from January 1, 2019. Due to the complex, manual calculation and the time period to be taken into account, it will take some time to process the trade tax interest notices. The amended notices will be sent to those affected in all open cases. No separate application is required for this. The city administration of Gera therefore asks you to refrain from asking questions about the whereabouts and processing status.

The Federal Constitutional Court ruled on July 8, 2021 that the federal statutory interest rate of 6 percent per year for back tax payments and refunds was unconstitutional. The new interest rate subsequently adopted by the federal legislator for interest periods from January 1, 2019 is now 0.15 percent per month, which corresponds to 1.8 percent per year.