The State Tax Office draws the attention of all property owners to the statutory obligation to notify circumstances relevant to valuation. Specifically, if there have been changes to the property (developed or undeveloped land or agricultural and forestry land) after 01.01.2022 that may affect the property tax values, this must be reported to the tax office.
A notification of change is required in the following cases, for example
- first-time development,
- Extension, conversion, core renovation, demolition,
- Extension of the living or usable space,
- Conversion of commercial premises into residential premises,
- Change in the type of use (e.g. farmland becomes building land).
This does not include changes in ownership (e.g. due to sale). The respective tax office generally receives information about changes in ownership from the land registry offices.
Deadlines for submitting the notification of change
Changes that occurred in 2022 or 2023 had to be reported to the tax office by December 31, 2024.
Changes that occurred in 2024 had to be reported in summary form by 31.03.2025.
Even in the case of tax-exempt properties, listed buildings and publicly subsidized housing, any change in use or ownership that occurred in a calendar year up to and including 2024 had to be reported to the relevant tax office within three months.
For changes that have occurred or will occur from calendar year 2025 onwards, the deadline for all changes ends uniformly on March 31 of the following year. The changes must be reported in summary form.
How must the change be transmitted?
The changes must always be transmitted electronically to the responsible tax office. This is possible via the online tax office ELSTER: https://www.elster.de. The electronic form "Property tax change notification" is available there.
If ELSTER has already been used for the assessment declaration required as part of the property tax reform, the data from this declaration can be transferred to a new assessment declaration with the help of "Data transfer", adjusted as required and transmitted to the tax authorities, stating the relevant assessment date.
For assistance, the website of the State Tax Office provides a corresponding click guide for preparing a declaration of assessment: https://lfst.rlp.de/information/grund-und-boden/grundsteuerreform.