Property tax, general information

Prerequisites

• You own property in Hamburg

Documents required

Declaration forms for the unit assessment are available on the Internet (see links).
For the new property tax, the returns can be submitted via ELSTER or in paper form from July 1st, 2022. The latest submission date is January 31, 2023.
To pay the property tax, a SEPA direct debit mandate can be issued using the form provided on the Internet (see links). An existing SEPA direct debit mandate continues to apply to the new property tax.

Please note

• When real estate is sold, the seller is still liable for the real estate tax in the year of the sale. The purchaser is liable for tax in subsequent years.
• Properties that serve charitable, church or scientific purposes, among other things, can be exempt from property tax.
• In Hamburg, the tax office for transaction taxes and real estate is responsible for administering the property tax. The responsibility within the tax office depends on the location of the property.
• The ten-digit tax number, which begins with "16", corresponds to the so-called unit value file number. The tax number remains unchanged for the new property tax. You can find this in your last property tax notice, corresponding correspondence with the tax office or your account statements when paying the property tax
• Please always notify changes to account data and SEPA direct debit mandates in writing (letter or fax) with original signature.

Deadlines

• In the period from July 1st, 2022 to January 31st, 2023, the declarations for the determination of the property tax value for the main assessment date of January 1st, 2022 must be submitted for all land and businesses in agriculture and forestry in Hamburg. Based on this, the new property tax will be levied from January 1st, 2025.


• Property tax is generally due quarterly on February 15th, May 15th, August 15th and November 15th. For amounts less than 15 euros, it is due on August 15th, for other amounts less than 30 euros, it is due on February 15th and August 15th.

Procedure

Old right:

• The previous process will not change until the end of 2024

New right:

• After submitting the declaration to determine the property tax value, you will receive a corresponding assessment notice
• From the end of 2024, you will also receive a notification of the trade tax base amount and the property tax notification, which will show your specific payment burden

Processing time

• Depending on the individual case

Fees

No

Legal remedies

• objection


• Complaint before the Finance Court

The new property tax will be levied from January 1st, 2025 on the basis of property tax values.

In a multi-stage process, the real estate tax base amount is determined on the basis of the real estate tax value of your property or an agricultural and forestry business.
The real estate tax results from the real estate tax measurement amount to which an assessment rate is applied. The assessment rates for 2025 for agricultural and forestry businesses (property tax A), properties (property tax B) and undeveloped properties ready for construction (property tax C) will be determined in 2024.

Property tax will be levied on the basis of the previous assessed value until December 31, 2024. Until then, the assessment rate for real estate is 540 per cent (property tax B) and the assessment rate for agricultural and forestry operations is 225 per cent (property tax A).

You can find many questions and answers about the new property tax in the chatbot (see links).
If you own property outside of Hamburg, please contact the tax office outside of Hamburg (see links at www.grundsteuerreform.de).

You can also submit several declarations of determination with your ELSTER certificate.
Please note the ELSTER help texts. These can be opened in the ELSTER forms by clicking on the blue dots with a white question mark.