Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – In almost every sixth municipality in the southwest, the owners of private and commercial property had to pay more property tax in the first half of the year. As the State Statistical Office announced on Thursday in Stuttgart, 171 of the 1001 municipalities increased the assessment rate in the first six months of this year. In the top group is the city of Reutlingen, which raised the property tax by 100 percentage points.
The taxpayers’ association criticized the increases because they made the already expensive housing even more expensive. “The disposable income of the citizens is thus reduced,” complained Eike Möller, chairman of the Baden-Württemberg taxpayers’ association. In the crisis, cities and municipalities should rather put their spending to the test. Möller warned the municipalities not to turn the tax screw before the new state property tax law comes into force. The new rules can be expected to result in a significantly higher property tax burden, especially for one- and two-family houses.
From 2025 onwards, a new property tax calculation is to apply. This is done on the basis of information that owners now have to submit. From the beginning of July to September 28, 24 percent of the more than four million owners in the south-west had submitted their declaration, the Ministry of Finance in Stuttgart said when asked by the dpa. Officially, the property owners have until the end of October. Most recently, however, it had already been said that the reminders might not go out until the beginning of next year.
