Around six to eight years ago in Germany....some folks brought up legal challenges on how east and west German states were handling the property tax business. For those who didn't know....your property tax is what the local community absorbs and is the bulk of their 'funds'.
The Constitutional Court took up the discussion, and in the end....agreed.....there was not a fair country-wide regulation. They handed this back to the Bundestag, and said 'fix it'. It had to be one regulation for the entire country.
So for about a year, they argued about this, and came to a point with a PhD-type crew....inventing a property-tax out of thin air.
You would think....in this creation, you'd make a rule that says from the old day's method....there could not be more than a 10-percent change in your property tax....but NO, that was not designed into this.
So they needed a data set, and in their brilliance....decided that they (the federal, the state, and local district) should NOT be the ones to fill the data set. They developed a on-line template, and then sent you (the property owner) a letter with your template name/number....telling you to fill out the data yourself.
My German wife....being marginally gifted with IT skills and having a minimum amount of patience....quickly reached a 'disconnect' after four hours of trying to make this work, and getting the program to accept the data.
The wife then talked to others, finding they also had the same issues. I'm saying their patience level is limited.
Help from the regional folks in charge of this program? It went nowhere. The design of the template and the function of the data....did not make sense.
Deadlines....came and went.
Finally, my wife went to a tax accountant, who gave her a 3x5 inch type card of how to fill out the form (in ten minutes) and get the system to accept the data.
That was around 15 months ago. So back in the 4th quarter of 2024....the information sheets started to be mailed out. Tax assessments for property? Some folks are paying 300-percent more than before. Some are paying 100-percent roe than before.
So far in the state of Hessen....the assessments have just started to be mailed out.
I asked my wife last night....her thoughts on how much of a increase it will be (the normal yearly assessment was around 600 Euro). She said if it was ten-percent higher (660 Euro).....she wouldn't mind. If it were 1,200 to 1,500....yeah, it'd bother her greatly. If it were 2,000 or more....it'd trigger her to think over her political choices (meaning the campaign for the national election).
I assessed this. All you really needed was a simple template, with size of the lot, and home square meters....maybe an age....then insert the old tax amount (last paid), and write the rule that it'd go up but by only x-amount (probably 10-percent).
But in this case, I don't think the district or state tax-people....really understood the tax code (the old one), how to build a template, or contemplated how to really piss off property owners.
Where this is leading to? Social media and news groups say that complaints are coming in, and there's likely to be a new tax complaint going to the Constitutional Court before the end of 2025. My guess? They will issue a 'stall' to the new code, and 2026 taxes will still be with the old code.
Added to this problem? Well....if you read through commentary....a LOT of district and city organizations are heavily into debt because of poor spending habits. So they need MORE capital out of thin air....hence the reason for the increased taxation.
I'll just say....from a outsider prospective...there's likely to be a 'come-to-Jesus' moment in early 2026....where the Bundestag has to admit they screwed-up and have to write another property tax code.
Adding to this misery? Well.....all the frustrated feeling of filling out the stupid template from 2023/2024....hours wasted....will re-occur, as they have to invent another template out of thin air, and expect people to fill it in some fashion.
Extra misery on top of that? Well....these districts are still in serious debt problems....so the next property tax deal....won't be able to resolve that mess.
So that is the fiasco. It is a comedy of errors....but how you intend to resolve this fairly....is a big unknown.
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