30 million open property tax returns – is October 31 still tenable?

It's a mega project: In Germany, 36 million plots of land and buildings have to be revalued. Every property owner is obliged to submit a property tax return within four months. It started on July 1st, and the deadline ends on October 31st – at least according to the current schedule, it should end then.

However, the number of statements made so far raises doubts that it will stay at the end of October. According to the Bavarian State Tax Office, 5.25 million electronic property tax returns were received nationwide from the beginning of July to the end of August. After half the time, this corresponds to a delivery rate of just under 15 percent. According to the Federal Ministry of Finance, another percent of the declarations have so far ended up in paper form with the authorities.

"The tax authorities will not be able to avoid granting all those involved an extension of the deadline," said Hartmut Schwab, President of the Federal Chamber of Tax Advisors. The four-month period was "completely utopian" from the start, especially since it started during the summer holidays. "In the next two months it will not be possible to catch up."

In mid-August, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) made it clear that extending the deadline was an option. He's worried about how things are going at the moment. He receives support from Schleswig-Holstein: "If the Federal Finance Minister thinks about extending the deadline, I'm still open to it," said Finance Minister Monika Heinold (Greens) in Kiel. However, it must always be taken into account that there is a time limit from the Federal Constitutional Court for the implementation of the new property tax law. The municipalities must have enough time to determine the new assessment rates that will apply from 2025.

In Baden-Württemberg, too, people are open to extending the deadline. State Secretary for Finance Gisela Splett (Greens) has already made it clear that those who do not submit their documents by the end of October have little to fear at first. Reminders would probably not be sent out until early next year.

Ultimately, the decision to extend the deadline does not lie with the federal government, but with the states. The mood there is still clear: It remains at October 31st. Many are betting that as October 31 approaches, the pressure on land and building owners will inevitably increase.

"It's only half-time, which also means there's still enough time to submit the tax return," said the State Ministry of Finance in Munich. In Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, a "significant" increase in electronically transmitted declarations is expected at the end of the summer holidays. And in Saxony, the matter is viewed very pragmatically: "An extension of the submission deadline would only result in this task being postponed further," said the State Ministry of Finance there.

However, if the fee is postponed until shortly before the end, the risk of technical problems increases again. After all, there are still around 30 million declarations to be made. This means that an average of 500,000 declarations must be submitted per day by the end of October. When 100,000 house and apartment owners tried to submit their tax returns via the Elster electronic portal over a weekend at the beginning of July, the system collapsed for several hours. Nothing worked.

Instead of extending the deadline, many countries continue to focus on education and easier access. "We are constantly working nationwide to make it easier to submit the declaration," assures the Saarland Ministry of Finance. For understandable reasons, many citizens have problems submitting the declarations – which is also due to the question.

In Berlin, experts from the Senate Department for Finance have just been available to citizens for 24 hours as part of a marathon of questions for taxpayers. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, reference is made to property tax office hours, during which the Minister of Finance personally answers questions from citizens.

So far, it has mainly been private individuals who have submitted property tax returns. "Large housing construction companies and property management companies have not yet submitted their declarations," said Bremen's finance senator. In the Hanseatic city, as in Lower Saxony, it is also pointed out that only a few declarations were made via tax consultants by the end of August. "Increased receipts are not expected until next month," said the Ministry of Finance in Hanover.

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