© dpa
According to a new report, most tax offices processed tax returns faster last year than the year before - despite the Coronavirus pandemic.
The Berlin authorities were particularly quick, the online portal t-online.de reports, citing a recent study by the Taxpayers Association (BdSt). They took an average of 33 days from the submission of the tax return to the assessment in the capital - four days less than in 2020.
In the federal state of Brandenburg, on the other hand, the processing took six days longer and the tax assessment arrived after an average of 48 days. This puts Brandenburg in last place in a nationwide comparison. According to the report, Hamburg (35 days) took second place in the ranking, followed by Saarland (38) and Rhineland-Palatinate (39). The Taxpayers' Association is critical of the large differences in processing time. "It should not depend on where people and businesses live when they receive their tax assessment notice and possibly even get money back," t-online.de quoted Daniela Karbe-Geßler, head of the BdSt's tax department.
According to the information provided, the evaluation relates to the assessment year 2020, i.e. to the tax returns processed by the tax offices up to the end of 2021. According to the Taxpayers' Association, this is based on average values from all tax returns processed by the tax authorities in the individual federal states. North Rhine-Westphalia has not reported any specific figures.