It's an ambitious goal: by the end of October, the tax authorities want to have the details of all property owners together so that they can calculate future property taxes.

Since the beginning of July it has been possible to enter the desired data online, and all taxpayers have been informed of this by letter.

But little has happened so far.

Just 360,000 declarations have been received so far, according to the Ministry of Finance.

360,000 out of 2.8 million expected – just a seventh.

Manfred Koehler

Head of department of the Rhein-Main editorial team of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

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"It's running slowly," says the Hesse House and Grounds Association, which represents the interests of real estate owners.

"Many have the letter, but the initial spark is missing," says a spokesman for the association.

After all, the interest is so great that the future property tax has become an "absolute long-running issue" in the association, as it is also said.

Most inquiries were based on the living space.

Reporting them is easy when you have documentation to look it up, but difficult when you don't have them.

Measure with the ruler

According to Haus und Grund, it is allowed to measure with a folding rule, but this is not always easy, for example in the case of a rented apartment.

Some members even ask for experts.

The spokesman adds that the tax offices only checked this information for plausibility, and that it is not to be expected that measurements will be taken.

It has also proved to be complicated to enter different parcels of land if the property is spread over several areas. only very few on paper.

If you want to provide the information in this way, you have to write to the tax office where your own property is located or call them,

The fact that the authorities in Hesse have received 160,000 calls about property tax since June shows that it is not always easy to provide information for property tax, as the ministry also reports.

"Often it's about cadastral terms such as corridor, parcel counter and parcel denominator or questions about co-ownership shares."

The ministry refers to the website

www.grundsteuer.hessen.de

, where extensive information can be obtained.

Information is available on the phone from Monday to Friday on the free number 08 00 /5 22 53 3 5.