Since July 1, owners have had to submit their property tax returns. Because of the onslaught, the “Elster” control portal has been overloaded for days. There are still restrictions on Monday. Criticism is high on social networks.
The “Elster” control portal remains only accessible to a limited extent. “Due to the enormous interest in the forms for the property tax reform, there are currently restrictions on availability,” said the portal’s homepage on Monday. The Federal Ministry of Finance referred to the state of Bavaria as the operator of the portal; a solution is being worked on “at high pressure”.
It was initially unclear when users would be able to use the full range of services again.
The background is that owners have had to submit their property tax returns since July 1st and the system has therefore been overloaded since Thursday. On Sunday evening, “Elster” collapsed completely.
This caused angry comments on social networks: “That
Part of the innovation is that the Federal Ministry of Finance has already set up its own portal in advance, which should simplify the property tax return for private property compared to “Elster” and make it possible in just a few minutes. Owners have until October 31 to submit the declaration electronically to the responsible tax office. In individual cases, the paper form would also work.
Gathering the information for the property tax return requires some effort. The exact data to be provided depends on the location of the property. This includes, for example, land and building area, but under certain circumstances also standard land values, rental prices or location. The federal states use different models. It is particularly complicated for owners who own real estate in different parts of the country.
Other financial topics:
Interest rates are rising, as are construction costs: It is becoming more and more expensive for house builders to finance their dream of owning their own home. If things continue like this, it could become unaffordable for many in Germany, believes the head of the building society giant, Wüstenrot.
Interest rates on building loans have almost quadrupled since the beginning of the year. This has dramatic consequences for real estate buyers and builders. Sample calculations show: There are tens of thousands of euros in additional costs.
