By Nils Kottmann
Digital chaos thanks to tax reform! The “Elster” tax portal collapsed on Sunday evening.
Because since July 1, owners have had to submit their property tax returns – their onslaught obviously brought the servers to their knees at the weekend.
On Twitter, a user reports that the platform has been on strike for several days.
“Due to the enormous interest in the forms for the property tax reform, there are currently restrictions on availability,” the operator, the Bavarian State Office for Taxes, announced there. The office is already working on a solution. The site is currently not available at all.
Alternative portal still works
The Federal Ministry of Finance seems to have suspected in advance that submitting the property tax return would be complex or overwhelming for laypersons. Because a separate portal was created for private property, which is intended to simplify the process:
Property tax for private property.
Owners of detached or semi-detached houses, condominiums and undeveloped properties can submit their property tax returns much more easily here than via Elster. BILD has tried the process and indeed: the website is clear, help areas show exactly where to find which information in the land register. If you have all the information together, you can get through in a few minutes.
Registration is based on the tax ID and an activation code that is sent to you by post.
Owners have until October 31 to submit the declaration electronically to the responsible tax office. In individual cases, the paper form would also work. The electronic transmission takes place via “Elster” and in certain simpler cases via the website of the Federal Ministry of Finance.
A situation is no longer simple, for example, if …
▶︎ … the property belongs to a community of heirs.
▶︎ … it is a non-residential property (e.g. detached garages or weekend properties).
▶︎ … building and property have different owners.
▶︎… the building is a listed building.
▶︎… you own a condominium and a parking space in an underground car park.
Practical: You can use this questionnaire to find out whether your case is a simple case.
In addition to the file number received from the tax office, the year of construction of a building, the number of garage or underground parking spaces, the living space per apartment and the standard land value or the yield indicator should be specified. The latter information could be accessed in the data portal for the property tax reform.