The FDP wants to change the fact that children only have to sell their parents’ house because they cannot pay the inheritance tax. Within the traffic light, there is now agreement that the allowance should increase. But the countries are responsible.
Finance Minister Christian Lindner welcomed the agreement reached by the traffic light groups on increasing the allowances for inheritance tax. “This is very good news for Germany, the owner country,” he said in Berlin in the afternoon. In view of the price increases, higher allowances are a question of fairness. Since there has been no change there since 2009, he believes that an increase of around 25 percent is necessary.
MPs from the SPD, Greens and FDP had previously agreed to support corresponding plans by the federal states in the Bundestag. Since the income from the inheritance tax goes completely to the federal states, Lindner now sees the Federal Council’s turn: The ball is on the penalty spot – “now the federal states only have to decide whether they want to score the goal or not”.
However, the minister advised separating demands for regionalization from the amount of the allowances. In the case of the latter, the hurdle for a common position is certainly lower. Because of the property prices in the south, Bavaria is pushing for a regionalization of the allowances, which the other federal states have so far rejected.
The joint position of the FDP, Greens and SPD states: “As federal legislators, we have the responsibility to ensure equal living conditions with constitutional taxation of inheritances. The revenue from the inheritance tax goes to the federal states. The initiative for current adjustments lies with the federal states.”
In the dispute over inheritance tax, the FDP presidium on Monday demanded a one-off increase in the allowances of 25 percent. They should then be automatically adjusted to the price increase rate. “Otherwise we will see that heirs to apartment buildings in particular will increasingly be forced to sell them,” said Executive Committee member Martin Hagen afterwards. However, it is “not desirable for society as a whole” for family-owned apartment buildings to be handed over to investors because the tax overwhelms the heirs.
Last Friday, the Bundestag passed the annual tax law with extensive tax changes. A transfer of real estate assets through inheritance and donations could therefore become more expensive under certain circumstances. The Bundesrat still has to give its final approval to the law. In the event of an inheritance, each child now has an allowance of 400,000 euros if the heirs do not live in their parents’ house themselves.
