Property tax reform in Saxony

Information from the Cash and Tax Office of the City of Chemnitz

The property tax for 2024 will still be levied in accordance with the previous law (Property Tax Act in the version dated 7 August 1973 (Federal Law Gazette I p. 965), last amended by Article 38 of the Act dated 19 December 2008 (Federal Law Gazette I p. 2794)). The last property tax notices sent by the City of Chemnitz will therefore remain valid by law until 31 December 2024.

From 2025, the property tax will be recalculated. To this end, all properties in Germany will be revalued from 2022. The property tax based on the new property tax values will be payable for the first time from 1 January 2025.

The property tax value and property tax assessment notices already largely received from the tax office form the basis for the property tax notices that will be sent out at the beginning of 2025. The specific amount of property tax from 2025 will change in any case. You will be notified of this with the new property tax assessment notices.

It is therefore necessary to cancel any standing orders used for the payment of property tax in December 2024.

Anyone who has already submitted a SEPA mandate for the previous property tax to the City of Chemnitz does not need to do anything. The SEPA mandate will continue to apply for the new property tax. The corresponding information is noted in the 2025 property tax notice under "D: Payment/Maturity".

All information on the property tax reform in Saxony

The deadline for submitting the property tax return expired at the end of January 2023. If you have not yet submitted the declaration, you are still obliged to submit it even after the deadline has expired; therefore, please submit your assessment declaration immediately.

Property tax is one of the most important sources of revenue for our city. All property tax revenues remain directly on site. We use them to finance the construction and operation of roads, schools and kindergartens, among other things. Sports and cultural programmes are also dependent on income from property tax.

A video also provides information on the need to implement the property tax reform and the "what the property tax is for": Link.

The tax offices are exclusively responsible for the assessment of property tax, and this will not change with the 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 declarations of assessment. Only when all property tax assessment amounts for the properties are available in our tax administration can the city council decide on the property tax rate from 2025 in 2024. Without the cooperation of the property owners by submitting the assessment declaration on time, a proper debate on the local assessment rates cannot take place. We therefore ask for your help.

Property owners can find all 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 counter and denominator, official area, standard land value or yield measurement figure 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 advisors and leaseholders.

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 assessment declaration must be submitted to the responsible tax office by 31 January 2023. The tax office in whose district the property is located is responsible. If you have not yet submitted the declaration, you are still obliged to submit it even after the deadline has expired; therefore, please submit your assessment declaration immediately.
  • A declaration of assessment must be submitted for each property and each agricultural and forestry business. Properties are, for example
    • 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, 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 a letter, the file number can be requested 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).
  • For detached and semi-detached houses, condominiums and undeveloped land, there is another free online service for submitting the property tax return - "Property tax return for private property" (can be used with or 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:


Until the end of the calendar year 2024, local authorities will continue to calculate and levy property tax according to 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. This means that property tax payments will only have to be made in accordance with the new law from then on.