Challenges for tax offices in Saxony due to property tax reform

The tax offices in Saxony are still having to deal with a high number of appeals as a result of the property tax reform. By July 31, a total of almost 580,000 appeals against property tax assessments had been received, according to an answer from Finance Minister Hartmut Vorjohann (CDU) to a small question from Left Party MP Franz Sodann. The "Sächsische Zeitung" and "Leipziger Volkszeitung" had initially reported on this. According to this, there are also 58 lawsuits from 25 plaintiffs.

In concrete terms, 334,096 appeals against property tax assessment notices had been filed by the end of July - roughly one in five of the notices issued by August 5 (1,662,570). 32,584 cases have been settled so far, in almost 63 percent of cases the appeal was upheld (20,445).

In addition, there were around 245,777 appeals against property tax assessment notices, of which 25,516 were settled. Here, the proportion of cases in which the appeal was upheld was 59 percent (15,128).

Property tax to be recalculated from 2025

A new property tax calculation is to apply from 2025. This was demanded by the Federal Constitutional Court, as the tax authorities were previously calculating the value of a property on the basis of completely outdated data. For the recalculation, property owners had to submit property tax returns.

The property tax is then usually calculated using a multi-stage model. Based on the property tax return, the tax office calculates the property tax value of a property. This is followed by a property tax assessment notice.

The tax office uses this notice to calculate the property tax assessment amount, which is also determined by a notice. This amount is then multiplied by the respective assessment rate of the municipality to calculate the property tax.