New (recalculated) land tax

[Emkay]

We just got our bill, house built 2007. Grundsteuer reduced by 45%. Water increased by 59%. My mother’s house, built 1911, in a neighbouring town went up by 760%. At least that Gemeinde didn’t increase anything else. Not sure if it’s a regional thing though it seems that properties older than the 1960‘s have had the highest increases. Really difficult for many, especially pensioners. With other utility etc increases, it’s possible to save on consumption as best as possible….can’t change the age of a home though.

[Eric7]

Ours went from €260 to €340 a year.
Not had any notification about water going up yet.

[Krieg]

We just got our bill, house built 2007. Grundsteuer reduced by 45%. Water increased by 59%. My mother’s house, built 1911, in a neighbouring town went up by 760%. At least that Gemeinde didn’t increase anything else. Not sure if it’s a regional thing though it seems that properties older than the 1960‘s have had the highest increases. Really difficult for many, especially pensioners. With other utility etc increases, it’s possible to save on consumption as best as possible….can’t change the age of a home though.

I think the whole intention of the reform was to make things fairer for everyone, some people were paying literally peanuts for their land taxes because the last valuation of the property was done in the 50s, so for example and increase from 50 EUR a year to 450 EUR is indeed a 9x increase but paying 50 EUR a year while other people were paying 600 EUR a year for a property of similar size in a similar area was not fair either. From what I've seen from the reform, for plenty of people what were paying a lot it actually got reduced.

[dstanners]

We have just received ours. It has gone up by 900%. No, that is not a typo.

[Eric7]

We have just received ours. It has gone up by 900%. No, that is not a typo.

What's that in Euros though?

[dstanners]

Just under 2k. I know that means it's still not exactly a huge sum, but it is an exceptional increase.
I guess it's the price for living in a cash strapped if beautiful area, here in the glorious (and increasingly expensive) Eifel.

[Eric7]

Just under 2k. I know that means it's still not exactly a huge sum, but it is an exceptional increase.
I guess it's the price for living in a cash strapped if beautiful area, here in the glorious (and increasingly expensive) Eifel.

Wow, that is a lot!

[dstanners]

I am going to speak with a few neighbours to check they've had the same sort of thing, as it does seem excessive.

All I can think of is that it seems the calculation date was at the end of 2022. House and land values have increased around here massively in the last 5-6 years, and the end of '22 saw a peak as demand significantly outstripped supply due to people needing new homes after the floods. Prices haven't fallen since, but investors are sitting on land and waiting to build, whereas in 22/23 they could put up any new build and sell it before the plaster was dry.
Of course I might be way off - as Grundsteuer used to be so low (compared to, say UK council tax), I never really bothered looking into how it was calculated (or for that matter, even what it was for).

[Emkay]

I am going to speak with a few neighbours to check they've had the same sort of thing, as it does seem excessive.

All I can think of is that it seems the calculation date was at the end of 2022. House and land values have increased around here massively in the last 5-6 years, and the end of '22 saw a peak as demand significantly outstripped supply due to people needing new homes after the floods. Prices haven't fallen since, but investors are sitting on land and waiting to build, whereas in 22/23 they could put up any new build and sell it before the plaster was dry.
Of course I might be way off - as Grundsteuer used to be so low (compared to, say UK council tax), I never really bothered looking into how it was calculated (or for that matter, even what it was for).

That is a lot! Your Messbetrag must have increased a lot as land value is higher. Gemeinde Hebesatz likely too. My mother’s went from MB 10 to 56, HS from 600 to 998. Not sure in Eifel if your Wohnfläche is also factored in? You could check your land value here just to make sure it’s not very different to the calculation you received from your Finanzamt. It only shows the latest values though.
https://www.bodenrichtwerte-boris.de/boris-d/?lang=en

[LeonG]

I just got my waterbill. The price stayed the same as the year before.

[dstanners]

Thanks for that link Emkay. I've checked with neighbours and they have also had 900% increases. However, there is a very interesting point from the link, in that my property falls into two of the land value areas shown on the link. The bottom section of my garden (very roughly an area about 1500-2000m2) is outside of the village border and is valued at just 30 Euros per m2. I will get my accountant to check whether they have used the higher value (the bit the house is on) for the whole of the property area. That could make quite a difference.

[Emkay]

Thanks for that link Emkay. I've checked with neighbours and they have also had 900% increases. However, there is a very interesting point from the link, in that my property falls into two of the land value areas shown on the link. The bottom section of my garden (very roughly an area about 1500-2000m2) is outside of the village border and is valued at just 30 Euros per m2. I will get my accountant to check whether they have used the higher value (the bit the house is on) for the whole of the property area. That could make quite a difference.

That’s interesting. Does the Bescheid you got from the Finanzamt show a single land value (Bodenrichtwert) for your entire property? Just that we also have about 2000m2 farmland in the same town and this is calculated separately as class A land, not built on and not approved building land. The Grundsteuer is just 4.80€ per year in total. Fingers crossed you can get reassessed

[Frantic]

So my Grundsteuer sensibly decreased. Thanks oh great free state of Bavaria !
On the other hand I got a +50% increase in water fees. They explained it in a nice letter I received, talking about the age of the fresh water and waste water net, the need to mantain or in some case renovate it, bla bla.
Nevertheless, +50% bump from night to day is hardly understandable, we are not talking about something like oil, gas or other "scarce" resources contracted on a market. Looks like they woke up just this year and realized they need to do a lot of works and they need a lot of money.

[Kerfuffle]

Our land tax has gone up by about 11%, not sure about changes to water charges yet. It was worth checking the Bescheid though because they sneakily charged church tax, a small amount but annoying nonetheless. Widerspruch by email was dealt with in a few days, so all is well.

[HEM]

The letters (one to me & one to my wife) arrived today from our town in Southern Schleswig-Holstein.

Previous rate: 482,48 Eur (annually)

New rate: 480,11 Eur (annually)


Why they didn't just send one notice the "Herr & Frau HEM"...

[Kerfuffle]

The letters (one to me & one to my wife) arrived today from our town in Southern Schleswig-Holstein.

Why they didn't just send one notice the "Herr & Frau HEM"...

I guess that the letters has to go to all owners and the owners may not always live at the same address, so the easiest but not greenest solution is to write to each owner separately. Nice to see that there is a small decrease in tax for you and Mrs HEM, don't spend it all at once

[Feierabend]

We just got the jolly letter. Ours has gone up from 87 to 138€ quarterly, so c. 58% increase. Brandenburg state.

[john_b]

Berlin - apartment constructed in 1908, Grundsteuer has increased from €32,60 to €69,79 quarterly = 114% increase.

[Alberto]

Just looked at my Bescheid, dated 2025.02.08:
132,46eur x 504 v.H. = 667,60eur
previous was 103,44 x 450 v.H. = 465,48eur

EFH built 2019, 115qm on 1050qm land, SH state