Because of the property tax reform, all house and apartment owners must send a declaration to the tax office. With the help of the “Elster” portal, the form can be completed and submitted from July 1, 2022. But this brings some to the brink of despair.
Every owner of an apartment or house must submit their property tax return by October 1st. It should be transmitted electronically to the tax office and is mandatory for all owners. The forms for this have been available since July 1st. The form can be filled out and submitted using the “Elster” portal. But many affected citizens fail, and some people even shed tears – the desperation is huge.
The hotline employees of the tax offices in Germany, who sometimes try in vain to help citizens with their property tax returns, notice this. You get to feel the anger of the people, says an employee of the “mirror”. “They think they have an official in charge who has worked in the tax office for 20 years,” he reports.
The new property tax calculation is met with incomprehension by many. “Nobody understands what this is supposed to mean. Nobody understands why this has to be now of all times,” says the hotline employee. “One of the most frequently asked questions is: you have all the data yourself, what do you want from me?”
Complete with all forms for the 2022 tax year
In addition to the question of the sense, the bulky formulations would drive some owners insane. Some older hotline callers even cried on the phone because they did not understand the information letters that were sent to citizens in some federal states. “They thought there was going to be a huge bill,” the hotline employee continues. Actually, the letter was only intended to help the owners submit their property tax returns.
Criticism also comes from the University of Cologne in this regard. Professor and linguist Bettina Bock accuses the Bavarian State Tax Office of not thinking about the citizens. The formulations are “absolutely from the point of view of the institution,” she told “Spiegel”. The official German is shown, for example, in terms such as “salutation key”, which is only intended to describe the choice of address between “woman” and “man”.
06.08.2022 | 3:30 p.m
Another point that makes it difficult to submit the declaration is the tight deadline. The owners only have four months to file their property tax return. Anyone who has a full-time job knows how quickly such a period of time rushes by. In addition, many federal states have only recently made the necessary information available online. They had previously underestimated how many questions the Elster statement raises – an annoying loss of time for many.
For newcomers to the Elster there is further frustration. The wait for Elster access can last several weeks. The reason: users need a so-called certificate file, which must first be sent after an initial registration. It is necessary in order to be able to provide digital proof of access permission.
The experiences of the Elster users obviously indicate a great need for action. Many who deal directly with the tax program call for more citizen proximity and less complex structures. The offers of help on the Internet are so numerous that it again confuses and deters the citizens – a structured selection is hardly possible. The affected owners demand clarity, speed and digital progress.
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Taxpayers should be able to fully deduct their pension contributions from next year. According to calculations by the Ministry of Finance, the affected citizens will be relieved by around 3.2 billion euros in 2023. In 2024, it is therefore still about 1.76 billion euros.
