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Editor:
Presscouncil City of Chemnitz
Pressrelease: 55

Property tax reform: deadline expires on 31 January 2023

The City of Chemnitz Tax and Revenue Office has informed you that the deadline for submitting property tax returns is the end of January 2023. All property owners are urged to submit the declaration for the assessment of the property tax value (assessment declaration) to their tax office in good time.

Property tax is one of the most important sources of income for towns and municipalities. All property tax revenues remain locally. They are used to finance the construction and operation of roads, schools and kindergartens, among other things. Sports and cultural activities also rely on property tax revenue.

The tax offices are exclusively responsible for property tax assessments, and this will not change with the upcoming reform. This means that the tax office determines the property tax value and the property tax assessment amount for the property on the basis of the declaration of assessment. The Chemnitz City Council will only be able to decide on the property tax rate from 2025 in 2024 once all property tax assessment amounts for the properties have been received by the tax administration. Without the participation of the property owners by submitting the assessment declaration on time, a proper debate on the local assessment rates cannot take place. The City of Chemnitz is therefore asking for their help.

Until the end of the calendar year 2024, the municipalities will continue to calculate and levy property tax in accordance with the previous legal situation. From 1 January 2025, the newly determined property tax value will be decisive for the property tax to be paid to the City of Chemnitz. Only then will property tax payments have to be made in accordance with the new law.

A video also provides information on the need to implement the property tax reform.

Property owners can find all the important information at www.grundsteuer.sachsen.de. The property tax portal (geodata portal) can also be accessed via this website to retrieve important information on the parcel, such as the district, parcel number and denominator, official area, standard land value or yield measurement number for agricultural land. The data stored in the property tax portal reflects the status of the information in the real estate cadastre or land register as well as the standard land value of the expert committees as of 1 January 2022. It is therefore not necessary to query the land registry or land registry office.

There are also explanatory videos and completion instructions for ELSTER at www.grundsteuer.sachsen.de. The instructions show step-by-step how to complete the form using examples and can also be downloaded for further reading.

The website also contains lots of helpful information for tenants and leaseholders, property owners, farmers and foresters, local authorities, tax consultants and those with hereditary building rights.

The specially set up property tax hotline is available for individual queries. The hotline of the Chemnitz tax office can be reached on 0371 279 2770.

What you need to know to determine the property tax value:

  • The tax offices are exclusively responsible for receiving and processing the assessment declarations.
  • The declaration of assessment must be submitted to the responsible tax office by 31 January 2023. The tax office in whose district the property is located is responsible.
  • A declaration of assessment must be submitted for each property and each agricultural and forestry business. Examples of land are
  • undeveloped land
  • residential properties (detached houses, semi-detached houses, rented residential properties, owner-occupied flats)
  • Commercial properties (mixed-use properties, commercial properties, partial ownership, other developed properties)


From April to June 2022, owners of residential properties and agricultural and forestry businesses received an individual information letter from their tax office. This included the file number under which the property or properties are registered with the tax office. This must be stated when submitting the declaration of assessment. If citizens have misplaced the letter or have not received one, the file number can be obtained from the relevant tax office.


Options for submission:

  • Free online with ELSTER certificate: www.elster.de (Incidentally, tax returns can also be submitted using a certificate from relatives).
  • Another free online service is available for submitting property tax returns for detached and semi-detached houses, condominiums and undeveloped land: Property tax return for private property (can be used with and without an ELSTER certificate).
  • Electronically via other software providers that offer this service
  • If online submission is not possible due to a lack of appropriate technology: Fill in the forms by hand and submit them. Paper forms are available from the tax office.


Services offered by the tax authorities: