German Inheritance Tax Reform

Bachelorarbeit von Marcus Bitterlich

Abstract:

On May 14th, 2007, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung announced in its Monday edition that the so-called Grand Coalition, formed of Social Democrats and Christian Democrats, had come to an agreement in principle regarding a fundamental modification of the Inheritance and Gift Tax.

A motion for a resolution containing the achieved compromise had been released to the public the day before. Thus, neither the abolition as intended by some liberal-thinking conservatives, nor a drastic tax increase as demanded by some egalitarian leftists will be the result. A precedent draft of the German Federal Ministry of Finance published last year therefore is very much likely to form the basis of an amended regulation of entrepreneurial succession. There had been long discussions beforehand, attendant on the outstanding ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court, which was expected to assess the differential treatment of acquired assets and its compatibility with the constitution.

Introduction:

Firstly, this thesis addresses, in its section 2, the legal status quo. I will depict in detail the issues of tax liability, valuation of assets, the calculation prescriptions as well as the current preferential treatment of business assets in practice all based on law in force. Next, the relevant changes comprised in the amending draft are exposed in section 3 with a clear focus on issues dealing with corporate succession, i.e. the transfer of business property. This includes a short, summarizing critique, reflecting how the draft was perceived amongst scientific commentators. In section 5, the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court is subject to recapitulating representation. The judges dealt with the issue of preferential treatment of real estate and business property thus discriminating against the acquirers of shares or monies. As law just forms a theoretical framework, thereafter I conduct an assessment on possible individual, economically triggered reactions. Section 6 derives the basic approach of opportunistic behaviour, explaining and anticipating effective action of entrepreneurs. Finally, section 7 draws a conclusion, resuming the findings and possible links to further analysis.