Are you kidding me?

We got a letter in the mail today from the Finanzamt, the tax ministry. UGH! There was a lovely cover letter confirming that they have been informed (because Big Brother is always watching,) that our building lot has now been entered into the Grundbuch (the property registry) in our names. This means it is time to start paying property tax. We haven't even paid for the property yet!
The following pages were two copies of a questionaire that we need to complete and return. It is a little ridiculous.
The questionaire is 5 questions, which seems simple enough, until you read the entire thing.
1. Do you plan on builiding on this lot?
2. Have you already planned what will be built on this lot? If yes, please send a copy of your building application permit.
3. How did you purchase this land? (Through a thrid party, through an architect, blah, blah, blah...)
4. How did you become aware of this property? Please send a copy of the advertisement for the lot with this questionaire.
5. Was there any work on the property before you purchased it? (Excavation, an existing house, foundation)

This is to determine the amount of property sales tax that we need to pay. Seriously?

What is so dumb is that this was a simple private sale. We called the owners who we knew were selling off their building lots, and they sold us one. Simple. The problem is that we wonder if this may even effect the old owners' taxes. They purchased the land a few years ago, split it up, and sold it. But really, this is crazy. I don't save everything, I certainly don't have the advertisement for the lot, and I don't really want to give them our building permit application until we have to.

All this needs to be completed by 31 August, or we run the risk of having our names taken off the property registry.

GRRRRR!