Property tax | Thuringia: One in five people contests property tax assessment

When it comes to the property tax they have to pay, people in Thuringia appear to have quite different levels of opposition depending on the region. Data from the Erfurt Ministry of Finance show this.

By March 31, 18 percent of the recipients had filed objections to the notices sent at the turn of the year due to the changed legal framework. This was revealed in a response by Minister Katja Wolf (BSW) to a parliamentary question from Left Party MP Ronald Hande.

However, while the objection rate in the areas of responsibility of the tax offices in Southern Thuringia and Eisenach was around 16 percent, it is significantly higher in Eastern Thuringia, in particular. At the Altenburg tax office, almost one in three recipients objected to their new property tax assessment. According to the ministry, the objection rate at the tax offices in Erfurt, Gera, Jena, and Pößneck was 20 percent.

The appeal rate is particularly low in central Thuringia: In the area of ​​responsibility of the Mühlhausen tax office, it is only around twelve percent. There are eleven tax office districts in Thuringia. The previous offices in Sonneberg and Suhl were merged into the Southern Thuringia Tax Office in 2024.

According to a spokesperson, the ministry cannot explain the origins of the sometimes significant regional differences. The Thuringia Chamber of Tax Consultants also has no explanation. "The tax consultants have regularly informed their clients that doubts have already been expressed about the constitutionality of the new property tax law and that an objection to the assessments can be filed on this basis," said a spokesperson for the chamber. Furthermore, the consultants recommend that their clients object to even obviously erroneous assessments.

The way property tax is levied in Germany had to be reformed following a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court. Taxes were to be paid according to the new calculations for the first time on January 1, 2025. In Thuringia, these had generally resulted in higher taxes being paid for residential buildings and lower taxes being paid for commercial buildings used by companies.

The Erfurt coalition of CDU, BSW, and SPD has planned to change the calculation model used in the state on January 1, 2027, so that property tax for residential buildings will decrease again – and companies will then often have to pay more property tax for their commercial properties. The property tax accrues entirely to the municipalities. This generates approximately €240 million in annual revenue across the state.

According to the Ministry of Finance's response to the Left Party's inquiry, by the end of December 2024, the tax offices had finally processed approximately 1.1 million property tax declarations for determining property tax values. Approximately 831,000 of these related to property tax B declarations, which are payable, for example, on residential and commercial properties. Approximately 256,000 concerned agricultural and forestry land.

The Ministry of Finance was unable to say how many households and businesses failed to file new property tax returns last year despite their existing obligations and therefore had to pay late-filing penalties, for example. "No statistics are kept on this matter. Therefore, no information can be provided," the response stated. For those who did not file returns, the tax offices often estimated the tax base.