As part of the property tax reform, more than 36 million properties across Germany must be registered and their values recalculated. As a tax consultancy, it is therefore important to organise the resulting workload as efficiently as possible. The biggest part of this is played by the Property tax software, and Opti.Tax Property Tax sets new standards in terms of efficiency. This includes the ability to efficiently capture property data using an Excel template. Our Customer Success Manager, Samuel Königshoven, and chartered accountant Teresa Gerke demonstrate how this template works and how it can be used.

It all began with a desire to make the process of recording property data easier and more efficient for the client. Previously, there was a template for the national model. However, when breaking this down into the state-level models, the team realised that the template had reached its limits. A new template was therefore developed, which is presented by Samuel and Teresa

At first glance, it is clear that the new template has been expanded to cover the regional models and the agriculture and forestry sectors. In the next step, fields that need to be completed have been highlighted in light yellow. For example, under „Owner’s details“, when selecting „Spouse/civil partner“, a note appears stating that this unit requires a unique identification number. This is later used by Opti.Tax for allocation purposes. Below this, the members of the partnership (spouses/civil partners) can be selected individually and assigned their own identification numbers. The ownership structure can then be entered.

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Smart navigation within the template

Another new feature is that there is now a link to the next section of the template at the top, above the tables. This makes it easy to click from one section to the next. The next section of the demo is „Registration of economic units“. Here, the owner is selected first and the serial number is entered automatically. You must then enter either the unit value reference number or the property’s tax number. These options are provided because the queries vary depending on the regional model. Incidentally, it is also clear here that fields are repeatedly highlighted in yellow as soon as specific data is required. If this information is available, it should be entered into the table. As the table contains many fields, the automatic guidance provided by the template is a great help when filling it in.

The next worksheet is „Cadastral Areas & Parcels“. Here you can see the new column for the short name of a plot. Previously, only the plot number was displayed. The short description helps you keep track of things quickly and identify which plot of land is being referred to at a glance. In the demo, a field is highlighted in red here for the first time. This often indicates that a value is incorrect or missing – however, in this template, the red colour means that the user does not need to edit this field. The field must be left blank. The process continues in this way until all fields have been completed. Once this is done, the message „No further information is required for this plot!“ is displayed. This informs the user that everything has been filled in correctly.

A great help with data collection

To demonstrate how user-friendly the Excel template is, Samuel selects the „Yes“ option for the tax relief. The form immediately indicates that details regarding tax relief need to be added. Under the „Exemptions & Relief“ tab, the process for filling in the form is exactly the same as for the other tables. Once again, fields that need to be completed are highlighted in yellow, whilst those to be left blank are highlighted in red. Once all fields have been completed correctly, the familiar notification appears again, stating that no further information is required for the property.

In principle, this is how the entire template works. Existing plots of land are entered, and the necessary fields are automatically highlighted until all the information has been provided. The Excel template is available on hsp.community. In May, the Opti.Tax release enabling this import will be available for download. All in all, the template will save law firms and clients a great deal of time and effort. Given the sheer number of properties that now need to be recorded, this will certainly be a great help.