Property valuation

The word on this page that an English reader is most likely to misread is taxieren. It looks like « to tax », and the two verbs are related, but they have divided the work between them. Levying a tax on a property is besteuern in German. Taxieren means putting a figure on something: der Makler taxierte die Wohnung auf gut dreihunderttausend Euro. Outside the trade it keeps the same idea and turns it on people — sie taxierte ihn mit einem kurzen Blick is somebody looking a stranger up and down and deciding what he is worth. Nothing is ever collected. In a formal valuation the verb gives way to the nouns of the statutory procedure, die Wertermittlung and der Verkehrswert; taxieren is what the estate agent and the buyer at a viewing do, quickly and by eye.