Property tax; payment to the municipality
The municipalities levy property tax on property owners to finance their tasks. The responsible municipality sets the property tax after the assessment bases have been determined by the responsible tax office.
Description
For what must property tax be paid?
The following are subject to real estate tax
- farms and forestry (land tax A) and
- Real estate, e.g. single-family houses, condominiums, commercial properties (real estate tax B).
Until 2024:
The basis for the tax calculation is solely the value of the business or the land (assessed value). However, the value ratios as of January 1, 1964 are decisive here. The standard values will only be used as the basis for property tax up to and including 2024.
From 2025:
From 2025, the basis for calculating the tax for real estate tax A will be the capitalized earnings value of the business. For real estate tax B, the areas of the parcels and the buildings as well as the building use will be decisive.
The owner's personal circumstances are not taken into account when determining the tax base.
The tax is determined in a three-stage procedure (see links under "Related topics").
The responsible municipality assesses the property tax after determining the assessed value (until 2024) or the equivalent amounts/property tax value (from 2025) and the assessment of the property tax assessment amount by the responsible tax office. In this process, the property tax assessment amount communicated by the tax office is multiplied by the assessment rate that the municipality has set in advance in its bylaws. The municipality has wide discretion in determining the assessment rate.
The property tax can be waived, among other things, if the normal yield of the business or the property is substantially reduced and the owner is not responsible for this. The application for remission must be submitted to the municipality.
Who has to pay the real estate tax?
The owner of the agricultural and forestry business or the land must pay the property tax.
If the land is rented out, the property tax can be passed on to the tenant as part of the operating costs.
If the owner changes because the agricultural and forestry business or the land is sold, given away or inherited, the new owner must pay the property tax from 1 January of the following year. For the year in which the ownership of the land changed, the old owner still has to pay the property tax. The old and new owners can agree among themselves that the costs will be paid by the new owner. This does not have to be communicated to the tax office or the municipality. The municipality itself may not demand the property tax for this calendar year from the new owner, but must still approach the previous taxpayers for it.
Special notes
Real estate tax reform
In its ruling of April 10, 2018, the Federal Constitutional Court declared the standard values to be incompatible with the German Basic Law. The Bundestag and Bundesrat therefore passed a reform of valuation law in the fall of 2019. The new values will be used as the basis for property tax assessments from January 1, 2025. Until then, property tax will continue to be calculated on the basis of the standard values. With effect from January 1, 2025, the federal states will be able to enact independent state legislation that deviates from federal law. The Bavarian Real Estate Tax Act was enacted on December 10, 2021.
Information on the real estate tax reform in Bavaria is available on the website of the Bavarian State Tax Office (see "Related Links") and the information hotline on the Bavarian real estate tax at 089 / 30 70 00 77.
Remedy
You can lodge an objection/appeal or file a lawsuit.
An independent assessment is issued for the assessed value or the equivalent amounts/the real property tax value, the real property tax assessment amount and the real property tax, each of which can be appealed separately.
However, an appeal against the real property tax assessment cannot be justified on the grounds that one of the other assessments is incorrect. These are purely basic assessments for the assessment of property tax and are therefore binding for the municipality. If the basic assessments are changed, the municipality adjusts the property tax ex officio.
The objection against the real estate tax assessment notice can also not be based on the incorrectness of the assessed value or the equivalent amounts/the real estate tax value.
Links to more information
Status: 22.08.2022
Responsible for editing: Bayerisches Staatsministerium der Finanzen und für Heimat
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- Prefillable Form, Bavaria-wide
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- Fees, locally limited
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