Because real estate prices have exploded, heirs will have to pay hefty taxes in the new year. While the value of houses and apartments has often doubled, the allowance for a child has been 400,000 euros for years. The FDP wants to change that and refers to the coalition agreement.
Due to a change in the law, heirs to larger assets could face high inheritance tax costs from January 1, 2023 – the FDP now wants to prevent this. The higher taxes “by no means only affect people with high incomes,” said FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr in Berlin. Expensive payments could be made on inherited real estate in particular from 2023 due to the sharp rise in sales prices. The FDP now wants to work in the coalition to ensure that the allowances for inheritance tax are increased accordingly.
The background to the debate is a regulation from the 2022 annual tax law, which had been passed by the previous CDU-led government. This implemented a requirement of the Federal Constitutional Court, according to which real estate values ??must in future be estimated as close as possible to the sales value for tax purposes. The law does not provide for any higher allowances for inheritance – currently they are around 400,000 euros for children.
Since the sale prices for real estate have risen massively in recent years, especially in metropolitan areas, the current allowances for inherited condominiums or single-family homes could be well above this threshold – inheritance tax would then be due. FDP parliamentary group leader Dürr pointed out that the coalition had decided not to burden the citizens additionally. This must also apply to inheritance tax. An increase in the allowances would be “possible without bureaucracy”.
The CSU had previously made similar proposals. “Since 2009, real estate prices in Munich, for example, have doubled or tripled in some cases,” Bavarian Finance Minister Albert Füracker said in Munich on Friday. “However, the personal allowances have not been adjusted for 13 years.” Higher allowances are the simplest means of providing relief. “Inheritance tax must not be a driving factor in preventing home ownership from being passed from one generation to the next.”