Budget and economic matters. - High volume of untreated tax returns remains
The financial offices in Brandenburg are struggling to keep up with the mounting pile of unprocessed tax declarations from employees and self-employed individuals. Although there's been a slight improvement in processing time compared to last year, it still takes several months for tax notices to be issued.
Out of the 896,000 cases in 2016, the number skyrocketed to 1.06 million the following year, as revealed by the Finance Ministry in Potsdam in response to a query from Landtag deputy Ronny Kretschmer (Left). This increase is responsible for the current backlog of unresolved tax declarations, which stood at approximately 122,000 in 2021 and has remained at a high level ever since.
The Finance Ministry’s data shows that it took, on average, 47.2 days to process an employee's tax declaration in 2022, up from 53.9 days in 2019. However, this is significantly slower than the 40 days it took in 2020. Conversely, the commercial sector witnessed an improvement, with the processing time dropping from 81.2 days to 74.1 days compared to the previous year. In 2020, it took just 46 days to process these declarations. The Ministry shared these findings with the media in April to address the Left faction's concerns about the state of Brandenburg's tax administration.
The surge in unresolved tax declarations is attributed to legislative changes from the 2018 tax year and special regulations implemented due to the Coronavirus pandemic in 2019. Additionally, staff in the financial offices had to manage tax measures related to the pandemic and the energy crisis resulting from the Ukraine war.
At the close of April 2024, the Finance Ministry claims to have reduced the number of unprocessed tax declarations from around 120,300 in late 2023 to about 54,750. At the same time, they welcomed 91,800 new declarations.
Kretschmer believes that the Ministry's figures hint at Bradenburg's tax administration being overloaded. Finance Minister Katrin Lange (SPD) urged him to take necessary measures to swiftly deal with the backlog of unprocessed tax declarations, highlighting that the long waiting periods were aggravating for households eagerly anticipating refunds.
Finance Minister Lange admitted in August the previous year that a scarcity of staff is partly responsible for the large number of unprocessed tax declarations. From 2006 to 2009, Brandenburg's financial offices ceased employee training. Only in 2020 was training drastically upped. Despite the additional overtime hours, there were 3,230 employees at the financial offices in the previous year, the same as in 2016.
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The financial struggle in Brandenburg's tax office continues, with a substantial backlog of over 120,000 untreated tax returns as of 2021, according to the German Press Agency. This backlog can be partly attributed to the increase in tax declarations from 896,000 in 2016 to 1.06 million in 2017, as reported by the Tax Office in Potsdam.
In an effort to address the issue, Finance Minister Katrin Lange acknowledged the role of staff shortage in the high volume of unprocessed tax returns. She admitted that the reduction in employee training from 2006 to 2009, followed by a lack of significant increase thereafter, has contributed to the current situation.
Furthermore, the Minister called on Landtag deputy Ronny Kretschmer (Left) to take immediate measures to reduce the backlog, emphasizing the distressing impact of long waiting periods on households awaiting tax refunds.
Despite these challenges, the Finance Ministry projected a significant reduction in the number of unresolved tax declarations to approximately 54,750 by the end of April 2024, as reported by the German Press Agency.
