2024-06-26 01:59:57
It’s the final piece of the puzzle that tens of millions of property house owners are nonetheless ready for: How excessive will the evaluation charges for the brand new property tax be? In two international locations, it’s changing into concrete.
It is going to quickly be determined whether or not the federal and state governments will hold their promise: the property tax reform is to be revenue-neutral. Particular person municipalities shouldn’t be capable of enrich themselves by way of it. As an alternative, the quantity of property tax that was within the metropolis coffers earlier than the reform ought to stay roughly the identical after the reform. The mayors, treasurers and metropolis councilors will resolve over the course of this 12 months whether or not it will succeed. This has already occurred in Berlin. And in North Rhine-Westphalia, too, the primary concrete figures are actually obtainable.
The NRW finance administration has revealed pattern values for the so-called evaluation charges for every of the 396 municipalities within the state. They’re the final lacking piece of the puzzle within the equation that can decide the quantity of property tax from 2025. The state authorities’s values are meant to indicate how a municipality’s evaluation fee should change in order that roughly the identical quantity of property tax is collected. You could find the revenue-neutral evaluation charges for cities and municipalities in NRW right here.
The tax authorities additionally differentiate between residential and business properties, i.e. they supply completely different evaluation charges for various kinds of property. That is meant to stop house owners of residential properties from being overburdened. With out this distinction, for instance, the revenue-neutral evaluation fee in Dortmund can be a uniform 785 %.
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If, nonetheless, town had been to set completely different tax charges for residential and business properties, it might solely be 615 % for residential properties and 1,231 % for business properties. The next applies to the tax fee: the upper the proportion, the dearer the property tax will probably be in the long run. You possibly can learn extra in regards to the tax fee right here.
The issue is that the state authorities’s values are solely a suggestion, and the municipalities should not have to stick to them. For instance, they might proceed to use a uniform tax fee. Nevertheless, the transparency register places the municipalities underneath strain to observe go well with. If the mayors deviate upwards, they’re positive to face anger from the residents. Different federal states are additionally planning related transparency registers.
“We’re giving these accountable domestically each choice to set truthful and efficient taxation for the individuals and firms of their municipality,” mentioned NRW Finance Minister Marcus Optendrenk (CDU). It will create “the best potential transparency for our municipalities and for residents.”
Municipalities criticize state authorities plans
Nevertheless, the concept of completely different evaluation charges for business and residential properties isn’t nicely obtained by cities and municipalities. “They aren’t a legally safe instrument to stop the burden from being shifted to residential properties,” mentioned Helmut Dedy, managing director of the Affiliation of Cities in North Rhine-Westphalia. “The authorized uncertainties can be nice, as a result of each differentiated evaluation fee have to be justified individually in every municipality in a constitutionally sound method.”
The North Rhine-Westphalian Affiliation of Cities and Municipalities additionally expressed criticism: “If the state passes this activity on to us, the evaluation charges will probably be up for dialogue within the councils yearly,” mentioned President Christoph Landscheidt. “It will repeatedly provoke conflicts between enterprise house owners and personal house owners. The state’s guarantees that it will ease the burden on housing won’t be able to be fulfilled in the long run.”
With a nationwide income of round 15 billion euros, property tax is, alongside commerce tax, a very powerful supply of earnings for municipalities, which they use to finance faculties, kindergartens, roads and playgrounds.
However even when the cities and municipalities undertake the completely different mannequin values one-to-one, some property house owners will probably be stunned. Income neutrality doesn’t imply that each single property proprietor finally ends up paying the identical quantity in property tax as earlier than the reform. Property tax may also rise or fall for individuals or corporations. “Income neutrality for the municipality doesn’t imply burden neutrality for residents,” says the web site of the NRW finance administration.
In Berlin, they’re already one step forward. Householders there can already calculate their future property tax burden. As introduced, the Home of Representatives has determined to scale back the tax fee from 810 to 470 % to be able to meet the requirement of income neutrality. Though it is a uniform worth for residential and business properties, the so-called tax base fee is being modified in favor of inhabited properties. In accordance with the brand new regulation, it is going to be 0.31 per thousand for residential properties from the start of 2025, however 0.45 per thousand for different properties.
The tax evaluation quantity is an element within the components for the property tax, together with the evaluation fee and the brand new property tax worth, which was decided utilizing the property tax returns. In case you multiply all three elements, you know the way a lot property tax you’ll have to pay from 2025. Berliners due to this fact use the property tax worth from their tax evaluation and multiply it by 0.00031 (tax evaluation quantity for residential properties) and 4.7 (evaluation fee that Berlin has selected). You possibly can learn extra about tips on how to calculate your property tax right here.