Property tax reform: coinciding with the census

Due to the coincidence of the census and the revaluation of real property as part of the real property tax reform, many property owners will have to provide information on their real property twice this year.

This year, Germany will once again hold a census, often referred to as a population census. With the 2022 census, Germany is taking part in an EU-wide census round that has been scheduled to take place every ten years since 2011. Due to the Corona pandemic, the upcoming census was postponed to 2022. As a result, the building and housing census taking place as part of the census from May 2022 will now take place almost simultaneously with the submission of the assessment declarations for the property tax reform.

Parallel data collection is unavoidable, as different characteristics are queried and collected. For data protection reasons, it is not possible to combine the census survey and the obligation to submit returns to the tax office. It is therefore also not possible to exchange the surveyed data with each other. This year, therefore, property owners must comply with both declaration obligations if they were also selected for the survey by the census.