The standard land values in a city or municipality are determined by the independent expert committee of the municipality. In doing so, the expert committees follow recognized valuation methods and the legal requirements of the Building Code and the Real Estate Valuation Ordinance.
In their valuation, the expert committees divide the urban or municipal area into different standard land value zones. Within such a zone are properties that largely correspond in terms of type and extent of use. The standard land value zones are to be defined in such a way that location-related differences in value between the properties to which the standard land value is to apply and the standard land value property do not generally exceed 30 percent. The standard land value is therefore not an individual land value for a single property.
No objection to the standard land value can be lodged with the tax office, nor can a formal objection be lodged with the local authority or the expert committee.
If you disagree with the standard land value for your property, you have two options:
- Contact the expert committee for clarification
Firstly, you can contact the expert committee. The expert committee will then examine the facts of the case. It can explain to you how it came to its decision on the zone boundary or the amount of the standard land value. If errors have been made in the valuation, the expert committee can redetermine and thus correct the zone boundary and, if necessary, the standard land value. This new value is then used as the basis for taxation. An objection is not required for this. The assessments are then amended ex officio
- Commission a qualified expert opinion
Alternatively, you can submit an application to the tax office to have a lower value for your property determined by an expert opinion. You do not need a special application form for this. In order for the tax office to take this lower value into account, you must then submit the qualified expert opinion. This does not have to be submitted together with the application, but can also be submitted later.
Such an appraisal is subject to a fee and can be issued by the expert committee and the persons named in Section 38 (4) sentence 3 of the State Property Tax Act. In order for the standard land value for your property to be changed, the report must prove that the actual value of the land is more than 30 percent lower. The value in the report must therefore deviate significantly from the fixed standard land value. This may be the case, for example, if a property can only be used to a limited extent compared to the other properties in the standard land value zone due to planning and development rights.
The requirements for the appraisal can be found in the information sheet at Oberfinanzdirektion Karlsruhe.
The tax office will check the expert opinion. If the formal and substantive requirements are met, the tax office will adopt the lower value for taxation purposes. Notices that have already been sent out will be amended ex officio. You do not need to do anything else.
The value from the expert opinion applies from the following year of your application. It is therefore important to know when you submitted the application. When you actually submit your expert opinion is generally of secondary importance. The lower value applies until the end of the main assessment period
Attention special regulation:
As the property tax reform means a changeover for all property owners, a special rule applies to the first main assessment of property tax values: if you commission the appraisal by June 30, 2025, it will be taken into account by the tax office retroactively to January 1, 2025 - regardless of when you submitted the application to the tax office or submitted the appraisal. It is important that the date of the order is noted in the appraisal.
If the property tax assessment notice is not final (e.g. as a result of an admissible appeal), the corresponding appraisals can also be submitted and taken into account retroactively until the appeal has been decided incontestably.