An interesting tax gift (keyword: tax remission) can be granted on application ( ! ) if a reduction of the normal gross profit of more than 20% has occurred and if the tax debtor is not responsible for the reduction of the gross profit, i.e. the reduction has occurred independently of his will. In the case of rented apartments, this may have resulted, for example, from the apartments being unrentable, a fall in rent or a loss of rent due to a tenant’s inability to pay. It must be based on the entire rental object and not on an individual apartment – the rent actually achieved is to be compared with the rent agreed at the beginning of the calendar year. In the case of developed land used for own commercial purposes, the entrepreneur is not responsible for a reduction in utilisation (and thus of his gross profit) if structural or cyclical developments are possible causes. Here, moreover, the tax collection must be “inequitable”. The reduction in property tax is 80% of the percentage of the reduction in income. The application for remission can only be made within a three-month cut-off period. Accordingly, the application for remission of the 2001 property tax must be submitted to the municipality by 31 March 2002 at the latest. In the case of exclusion deadlines, there is no reinstatement due to missing the deadline, for example if a secretary has accidentally left the letter with the application.
Source:Fiala, Freiesleben & Weber Law and Patent Attorneys, Auditors and Tax Consultants