In its ruling of April 10, 2018, the Federal Constitutional Court declared the federal regulations on property tax to be unconstitutional. The ruling was based on the unequal tax treatment of real estate. The last update of the tax bases took place in 1964, meaning that the statutory regulation on property tax violated the principle of equality in the German Basic Law (Article 3 (1) of the Basic Law).

The Federal Constitutional Court had set the federal government a deadline of December 31, 2019 for the new regulation. In November 2019, the federal legislator passed the property tax reform (the so-called federal model). An opening clause gave the federal states the option of making adjustments to the federal model or adopting their own property tax model.

The state of North Rhine-Westphalia has decided to apply the federal model in principle, supplemented by a law on the possible introduction of so-called differentiating assessment rates.

As a result of the reform, all properties in the Federal Republic of Germany had to be revalued. As in all federal states, the valuation of properties in North Rhine-Westphalia is carried out by the responsible tax offices. Based on the revaluation of all properties, the City of Bonn can issue a new property tax assessment notice, from which the correct amount of property tax can be determined.

The "old" property tax law applied until December 31, 2024. Until this date, the amount of property tax was calculated and levied in accordance with the familiar regulations. This also applies to properties in the area of the City of Bonn.

From January 1, 2025, the City of Bonn will then assess the property tax on the basis of the new legal provisions and the content of the property tax assessment notices issued by the tax authorities, which were prepared on the basis of the assessment declarations submitted by the owners.

The first property tax assessment notices under the new law will be sent out on March 27, 2025.

According to the federal model of property tax reform that is generally applicable in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, property tax is calculated in two stages:

Tax office:
Value of the property x tax assessment figure = property tax assessment amount

City of Bonn:
Property tax assessment amount x assessment rate = property tax

The value of the property is determined by the tax offices on the basis of a declaration to be submitted by all owners to determine the property tax value. The following factors in particular are taken into account when determining the property tax value according to the federal model: Type of property, plot area, standard land value, year of construction/age, statistically determined basic rent.

The tax rate specified in the Property Tax Act is based on the type of land use and is also applied by the tax authorities. For residential properties (detached and semi-detached houses, rented residential properties and condominiums), the tax rate is generally 0.031 percent, without prejudice to any exceptions, and 0.034 percent for non-residential properties (commercial properties, mixed-use properties, partial ownership, other developed properties).

At its meeting on February 13, 2025, the City Council of Bonn approved the following property tax rates, which will apply retroactively from January 1, 2025:

• Property tax A: 543%
• Property tax B for residential properties: 657%
• Property tax B for non-residential properties: 900%

Even after the property tax reform, property tax law recognizes several different assessment rates, which are explained below:

The assessment rate for property tax A is used to calculate the property tax for agricultural and forestry businesses. It should be noted here that with the implementation of the property tax reform, dwellings of agricultural and forestry businesses are included in property assets (see property tax B).

All other properties are subject to property tax B.

The assessment rate for residential properties applies to

• rented residential properties
• detached and semi-detached houses and for
• condominiums.

The assessment rate for non-residential properties applies to

• Commercial properties
• Other developed properties
• Mixed-use or undeveloped properties and for
• partial ownership (e.g. separately valued stores and similar).

This information can be found on the notice from the tax office on the property tax value, the notice from the tax office on the determination of the property tax assessment amount and also on the property tax notice from the City of Bonn.

In connection with the property tax reform, all owners had to submit a so-called assessment declaration for their property or, if applicable, for their agricultural and forestry business, which was used by the tax offices to determine the new property values as of January 1, 2022. The deadline for submitting these declarations of assessment expired on January 31, 2023.

If you have any questions about these declarations of assessment, please contact the tax office responsible for you directly. For property in the area of the City of Bonn, these are the Bonn-Innenstadt and Bonn-Außenstadt tax offices.

The tax offices have each set up a hotline on the subject of property tax reform, which you can reach on 0228/718-1959 (Bonn-Innenstadt tax office) or 0228/7268-1959 (Bonn-Außenstadt tax office). You can find more information on the accessibility pages on the websites of the two tax offices:

 Bonn-Innenstadt tax office (opens in a new tab)

 Bonn-Outer City Tax Office (opens in a new tab)

The City of Bonn is not authorized to provide advice or accept forms for declarations of assessment. Therefore, no information can be provided on the declaration of assessment or on the valuation of your property.

As the new property values and property tax assessment amounts are calculated and determined by the tax offices, please contact the tax office responsible for the property directly. This also applies to the lodging of any appeals in this connection.

The City of Bonn is legally bound by the new property tax assessment amounts set by the tax offices and is obliged to calculate the individual property tax on this basis. Any objections to the City of Bonn in this regard would have to be rejected due to the legally binding effect of the notices issued by the tax offices, even if they are asserted in connection with the annual property tax notices issued by the City of Bonn.

Even if you have lodged an objection against the property tax assessment notice with the tax office, the property tax assessed by the City of Bonn remains payable. Should the tax office revoke or amend the property tax assessment notice, the tax assessment of the city would also be revoked or amended ex officio.

Even if you have lodged an objection against the property tax assessment notice with the tax office or an appeal against the tax assessment notice from the City of Bonn, the property tax assessed by the City of Bonn remains payable. Should the tax office revoke or amend the property tax assessment notice, the tax assessment of the city would also be revoked or amended ex officio.

When the term "revenue neutrality" is mentioned in connection with the property tax reform, it regularly refers to the total tax revenue, i.e. the total taxpayers within a municipality such as the City of Bonn.

In contrast, revenue neutrality does not mean burden neutrality for individual taxpayers, as individual tax payments can and will change in connection with the property tax reform. Depending on the assessment case, this means that the individual property tax burden may increase or decrease after implementation of the property tax reform (from the 2025 tax year).

This is an unavoidable consequence of the above-mentioned decision by the Federal Constitutional Court, as the disproportionate length of time that outdated property values were used made it absolutely necessary to correct the property valuations.

The effects of the property tax reform on the individual tax burden vary greatly. In some cases, the tax burden is reduced and in other cases it is increased compared to previous years.

The extent to which landlords pass on the changed property tax burden to their tenants as part of the service charge settlement depends on the individual tenancy agreement and should be clarified in the internal relationship.

In summer 2024, the NRW tax authorities published so-called revenue-neutral assessment rates for all cities and municipalities on their website  https://www.finanzverwaltung.nrw.de/ (opens in a new tab), including for the City of Bonn.

These revenue-neutral assessment rates have no binding effect on the municipalities, as the cities and municipalities can determine their own assessment rates within the framework of their municipal self-government in accordance with the legal requirements. An important prerequisite here is that all properties have been assessed by the tax authorities.

The state's revenue-neutral assessment rates therefore served as a preliminary guide value for assessing which assessment rate could keep the property tax revenue in the City of Bonn area as a whole at the same level as it was before the property tax reform. Thus, even when applying these revenue-neutral assessment rates, changes in the burden would occur in the individual tax cases.

Unfortunately, the City of Bonn is unable to answer questions regarding the revenue-neutral assessment rates determined by the state. In this context, please contact the NRW tax authorities.

In July 2024, the governing parliamentary groups in the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia passed a law that, in addition to the federal regulation, allows for a differentiation of the assessment rate for residential and non-residential properties for property tax B. This is intended to allow local authorities to balance these assessment rates - depending on the local spatial and structural conditions - in such a way that they do not place an excessive burden on residential property owners, for example.

This means that local authorities in NRW now have the option of setting different rates of assessment for residential and non-residential properties. The council of the City of Bonn has made use of this and decided to apply differentiated property tax rates for property tax B from January 1, 2025.

Yes, the tax authorities of the federal states and the federal government offer a tax chatbot that can answer questions about property tax reform that may not be covered on this information page.

You can find the tax chatbot at  https://www.steuerchatbot.de/. (opens in a new tab)

The taxation of land and buildings as well as agricultural and forestry businesses is based on the regulations of the respective federal state in which the property is located.

In addition to the so-called federal model, which is applied in the majority of federal states, some federal states have issued their own regulations that deviate from the federal model to implement the property tax reform.

You can find an overview of the applicable regulations of all federal states on the overview page  https://www.grundsteuerreform.de/. (opens in a new tab)

On the website of the Federal Ministry of Finance you will find general information in the form of an  explanatory film (opens in a new tab) on the subject of property tax and property tax reform.

Information on property tax and property tax reform with specific reference to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia can be found on the homepage of the  NRW Ministry of Finance (opens in a new tab).

The online tax office, which can be used, for example, to submit declarations of assessment in connection with the property tax reform, can be accessed via the link  Elster.de (opens in a new tab).

Questions about the change of ownership of real estate are answered here:  Change of ownership (opens in a new tab).

Click here for the  SEPA direct debit mandate (opens in a new tab).

Click here for the statutes on the  real estate tax rates (opens in a new tab) applicable from 2025  (opens in a new tab).