Property tax assessment notice
September 15, 2011 | 20,00 EUR | answered by Oliver Burchardt
Dear Sir or Madam,
The tax office in Zwickau has informed me that a property tax assessment amount of 6.79 euros has been set for my leased garden plot, referred to as a miscellaneous built-up property on foreign land. This amount is based on a unit value of 971 euros multiplied by a tax assessment rate of 7%. The unit value was calculated from a cubic meter value multiplied by 17.00/DM³, converted from DM to Euro and rounded. To calculate the cubic meter value, the tax office required the size of the roof of the garden hut and the average height of the garden hut.
Now my question: The size of the roof does not correspond to the size of the footprint of the hut. It protrudes on one side by at least 60 cm beyond the hut. Is this method of calculation therefore lawful?
Thank you for your response.
Kind regards,
Dear Mr. Kletzsch,
Thank you for your inquiry, which I am happy to answer as part of an initial consultation.
For a small garden shed, a so-called replacement economic value must be determined according to the current legal situation. How exactly this value is to be determined is neither defined in regulations nor has a judicial ruling been issued based on my research.
In your case, I consider the assumptions made by the tax authorities to be reasonable. The fact that the roofs protrude over the floor area is due to construction and is common knowledge. To compensate for this inaccuracy in the calculation, only the average height of the shed is used, which works out more favorably for you. Both simplifications are likely to balance each other out almost completely in the end. Only if a completely incorrect value were to result would the calculation method be deemed unlawful.
If you still wish to challenge the calculation method, you can file an objection against the decision and outline your concerns regarding the calculation method. However, I do not see great prospects for success in this objection, as the described regulations fall under mass case law. Simplifications are necessary here and, as long as no serious misvaluations occur, are also lawful.
I hope my explanations have been helpful to you.
Sincerely,
Oliver Burchardt
Tax Advisor
