Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – Because of the complaints from citizens about the difficulties with the property tax return, the Baden-Württemberg Finance Minister Danyal Bayaz (Greens) is calling for a revision of the state tax program “Elster”. “The software is designed by the administration. That has to change,” he told the “Stuttgarter Nachrichten” and “Stuttgarter Zeitung” (Friday). All federal states are jointly responsible for the delivery. In the future, according to the expectations of the Green politician, the tax software should “put the citizens at the center and pick them up where they are – in understandable language and with an intuitive interface”.
Bayaz understands the dissatisfaction with the digital tax obligation in the property tax reform, in the context of which 35 million properties nationwide and 5.6 million properties in Baden-Württemberg are being revalued. “I can understand the criticism in some places,” he said. Elster is a nationwide software that must fit millions of taxpayers.
The Minister of Finance believes that the cities and municipalities have a duty to ensure that the reform that will come into force in 2025 does not lead to extreme burdens. “The local authorities are responsible for ensuring that their tax rates are designed so that housing does not become more expensive on average and that the promise of revenue neutrality is kept,” Bayaz told the newspapers.
The Greens politician considers a citizen-friendly further development of the tax software to be imperative not only because of the growing shortage of staff in public administration, but also in the sense of democratic legitimacy. “We live in a time when some people’s trust in public institutions is waning. We shouldn’t give the impression that the state is no longer able to do important things.”
