1.4 million objections: Baden-Württemberg's property tax in the crisis!

1.4 million objections: Baden-Württemberg's property tax in the crisis!

Baden-Württemberg, Deutschland - in Baden-Württemberg there is considerable resistance to the new property tax, which has been in force since January 1, 2025. Almost 30 percent of real estate owners in the country have already appealed against their property tax notices to the tax office. In total, more than 1.4 million objections were submitted to around 4.8 million cases. This high opposition quota represents one of the highest in Germany and raises questions about the fairness of the new tax regulations. The Remszeitung Question the constitutionality of the new property tax law.

The amendment to the law was necessary after the Federal Constitutional Court declared the old calculation method as unconstitutional. The new calculation is mainly based on land guidelines and no longer takes into account the values ​​of the buildings on it. Owners of single and two-family houses with large gardens are often affected by a higher tax load, which leads to an increase in the lawsuits. Around 125,000 objections relate to other reasons, for example wrong property sizes.

appeal rate and effects

over 56.7 percent of the objections have been processed, with about half of which decided in favor of taxpayers. This illustrates the clashes and uncertainties associated with the property tax reform. The Tagesschau emphasizes that the cities and municipalities in Baden-Württemberg annually around 1.8 billion euros Rail, which also has an impact on rental prices. The additional loads could be passed on by the owners to the tenants.

A total of 5.6 million homeowners in Baden-Württemberg are affected. The necessary adjustments in the tax offices require an additional 320 jobs to cope with the flood of objections. The concept of property tax differs between the federal states: While North Rhine-Westphalia uses the federal model, Bavaria uses its own area model. Around 1.3 million objections were recorded here and the opposition rate is around 11.3 percent.

legal disputes

Currently several legal proceedings for the constitutionality of the new law before the Federal Fiscal Court. The Baden-Württemberg Finance Court already rejected two lawsuits in June 2024. Appeals from Stuttgart and Karlsruhe have appealed against these decisions, and it is expected that the dispute may get to the Federal Constitutional Court. The legal challenges resulting from the property tax reform are not only for the owners, but also for tenants, since increasing property tax amounts in model regions could drive up living costs.