Weeks ago, I essayed a news piece about the court system of Germany ordering an entirely new and 'more fair' method of property tax. So far, the Bundestag (the Parliament) have not reached any firm conclusion. Some journalists will suggest that it'll be mid-summer before the coalition partners (SPD and CDU/CSU) reach a firm draft of the change coming.
This past week.....the SPD Federal Minister of Justice.....Katarina Barley...got into the news when she openly suggested the best way forward was a piece of this new property tax law stipulating that landlords should NOT pass the property tax costs onto the renter. Yes, that the home-owner or apartment-building owner would have to take this out of his/her profits.
Naturally, this got a lot of page one attention.....mostly negative.
The idea here by Barley was that property taxes are a owner's own personal responsibility and they should cover this via their significant profits. The idea that the owner has budgeted out his property, renovations, and loans? One might get the impression that she has never owned a property for rental purposes.
The problem here is that you continually have these certain individuals within the SPD Party who go and make public statements like this....basically 'shooting' themselves in the foot, and damaging the SPD's public 'brand'. People see them as intellectual 'kids' in adult clothing and not really grasping the real world around themselves.
If Bailey's suggestion did take root? Well....the property owners would just immediately hike up the rental cost to the level required, and everyone would see a 10-to-15 percent increase in rent, with the money detailed out new property tax.
In some ways, the court-ordered review and new property tax routine....has created a massive headache for the political folks. They can't fix this, without making some element of German society angry.
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