Angry issue of property tax (symbolic image) Photo: picture alliance / CHROMORANGE
By Sara Orlos Fernandes
The property tax for owners is to be recalculated and will apply from 2025. Property owners had to submit declarations of determination for the recalculation at the beginning of this year. Many Berliners did not comply with this; 21 percent of the owners objected to the decisions.
For many owners, the recalculation following the property tax reform means significant additional costs. 810,000 declarations had been submitted by August 31 and 170,000 objections had already been received against the notices of the new property tax value.
One in five Berlin property owners is already resisting this – even though the actual new property tax amount will not be announced until the end of next year. This emerges from the Finance Senate’s response to the request from MP Harald Laatsch (66, AfD).
Some owners are going even further and have already called in the courts. 27 lawsuits have now been filed, ten of which are still pending and 17 have been withdrawn.
72,600 owners did not meet the deadline for submitting declarations with information such as the area of the property, the age of the building or the ratio of living space to usable space.
However, the Berlin tax office only wants to impose late payment surcharges in exceptional cases.