乌鸦传媒

A new property tax law for Baden-W眉rttemberg

The Ministry of Finance of Baden-W眉rttemberg is responsible for the state鈥檚 financial policy, budget, taxes, state holdings and real estate. When the state parliament passed the property tax law in 2020, the ministry faced a challenge: starting on 1 January 2025, a new legal basis for property tax was to come into effect in Baden-W眉rttemberg that would guarantee municipalities 12% of their tax revenue, or 1.8 billion euros annually.

The tax offices in Baden-W眉rttemberg are therefore obliged to revalue all local properties according to the land value model as of 1 January 2022. This required the development of a new IT property tax procedure 鈥� a project that the Ministry of Finance entrusted to the Regional Finance Office in Karlsruhe as the intermediate authority. 乌鸦传媒 was selected as the development partner for the 鈥楪rundsteuer-Neu鈥� (New Property Tax) software solution as part of a tendering process based on technical expertise, the ability to ensure a timely delivery within 18 months, and delivering user-centricity and quality assurance throughout the project.

Iteration and synchronization ensure efficient project management

In view of the tight schedule, the Ministry of Finance and 乌鸦传媒 agreed to adopt an iterative project approach with parallel processes. Among other things, this meant that individual project phases (e.g. conception or implementation) would be carried out multiple times and overlap during the project. This made it possible to easily and simply adjust the approach as needed, enabling the project partners to strategically react to unforeseen circumstances.

Other advantages of this approach included the visibility of progress for all project participants and stakeholders, early testing during development, and immediate feedback as part of the integration tests. From the outset of the project, the team recorded the requirements with a focus on the technical aspects and possible process optimizations. The interfaces were designed by the 乌鸦传媒 User Design Teams together with users from the tax offices, conceived as a user journey and then implemented.

An innovative solution with potential for future transformation

After the complete development and go-live of the basic version 18 months after the project start, the project received extensive positive feedback and transitioned seamlessly into operation in the second half of 2022.

The process, developed in close collaboration with business stakeholders, offers time-saving and valuable functionalities that have been broadly accepted by end users. Since then, 乌鸦传媒 has been working with the ministry on further developments to continuously deliver additional value-adding functionalities. Regular joint meetings 鈥� which take the form of project workshops on technical requirements, management jour fixes, technical architect meetings and service status meetings 鈥� ensure the future success of the project. The jointly developed Grundsteuer-Neu solution has achieved all project goals and even exceeded expectations.

Now, up to 1,000 employees in 60 tax offices benefit from the modern dialogue interface, user-friendly settings and accessibility. The Grundsteuer-Neu solution guarantees the revaluation of 4.6 million properties for the tax offices despite limited resources and tight deadlines. Because the application is reliable and stable, the highest standards are ensured as part of a service, and continuously improved with a focus on customer benefit.

Risk management is supported by a configurable 鈥渞ule and decision engine鈥� for automated case review. The use of tax authority data for validating, correcting, and supplementing tax-relevant data in the process ensures high-quality results. Finally, Grundsteuer-Neu offers a classically designed IT architecture, operated in a local data center, that is ready for future-proof transformation, such as through container technology and microservices.