Bavarian municipalities took advantage of the property‑tax reform last year to raise revenues significantly.
According to figures released by the Federal Statistical Office and cited by “Welt am Sonntag”, the average increase was 10.4 %. No other federal state recorded a higher rise.
In Hesse, revenue from the relevant Property‑Tax B climbed an average of 3.7 % compared with 2024. Lower Saxony saw a smaller gain of 1.7 %. In contrast, most other states experienced revenue declines, with Thuringia reporting the steepest drop: its municipalities recorded a 6 % reduction compared with the previous year. Data from the city‑states are still unavailable.
When the reform was approved in 2019, the government promised that municipalities would not use the changes to boost income. The Bavarian State Office for Taxes stated to “Welt am Sonntag” that, per the political mandate of the Bavarian State Government, a municipality’s property‑tax receipts after the reform should not exceed those before it. Whether the reform was carried out in a revenue‑neutral manner ultimately depends on the individual municipality’s decision on the levy multiplier.
On April 1, the Federal Statistical Office issued a press release on municipal finances noting that the total property‑tax receipts from categories A and B remained unchanged at 14.5 billion euros last year. At the request of “Welt am Sonntag”, the statisticians supplied a breakdown of the figures by federal state.