Salma Louden, lawyer at the law firm Bottermann Khorrami:
“The SPD’s reform proposal for inheritance tax reform contains good and less good ideas. The proposal for private individuals goes in the right direction: a life tax allowance of 900,000 euros for family members plus 100,000 euros for heirs outside their own family. Against the background that real estate prices have risen sharply, the life tax allowance means a relief for families with real estate assets, as assets of up to 900,000 euros can be inherited tax-free within the family in addition to the family home they use themselves. As a result, fewer heirs would be forced to sell real estate or take out loans in order to pay inheritance tax. On the other hand, the proposal for corporate inheritances is not economically optimal. It is difficult to bring companies into the next generation at all. In my opinion, therefore, burdening the successors even more is not expedient for the economy in times of recession, even if the tax burden can be spread over 20 years. The previous inheritance tax regulation privileges inherited company assets on the basis of exemption regulations. In principle, this privilege should be retained so that there is an incentive for company transfers. However, company heirs have so far been able to avoid inheritance tax completely in many cases with the help of extensive exemption rules. The Federal Constitutional Court is currently examining whether the privileges of large business assets, in contrast to the taxation of private assets, constitute an unreasonable disadvantage. A reform of the inheritance tax will depend on the ruling of the Constitutional Court. In addition, the coalition partners will have to find a compromise. We can look forward to the proposals of the CDU/CSU.”
