The CSU executive is in favor of higher allowances, inflation compensation and regional differentiation. In Bavaria in particular, where real estate prices are high, people are “particularly affected”.
The CSU demands rapid corrections to the inheritance tax by the federal government, above all higher tax allowances, inflation compensation and a regional scale. A change that is likely to come into force at the turn of the year and provides for more burdens “cannot go ahead like this,” said CSU chairman Markus Söder on Monday after a meeting of his party executive. It is “unacceptable that an FDP finance minister is turning the inheritance tax screw like never before”; Söder meant department head Christian Lindner. The innovations happened “de facto on the quiet without any major public communication”. Finance Minister Albert Füracker (CSU) and Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (FW) recently commented on the subject. The CSU decisions are now likely to coincide with the attitude of Söder’s state government.
The immediate cause is the annual tax law, which has already gone through the traffic light cabinet. The final decision is still pending. It is a so-called omnibus law that aims with dozens of individual regulations across tax law and thus reacts to current requirements in small parts. It provides that from January 1, 2023, new standards that are closer to the actual market value will apply to the valuation of real estate. “We calculated some cases and came up with increases in real estate values of 30 to 50 percent,” said a specialist lawyer recently in the SZ.
There is currently an allowance of 400,000 euros per child if the heirs do not live in the parental home themselves. In the meantime, however, the purchase prices for residential buildings in parts of Upper Bavaria, for example, are well over one million euros. “It cannot and must not be the case that children have to sell their parents’ home because they cannot afford the inheritance tax,” said Finance Minister Füracker at the weekend. “Since 2009, real estate prices in Munich, for example, have doubled or tripled in some cases. Personal allowances, however, have not been adjusted for 13 years.”
Actually, Bavaria’s finance minister would benefit from the change: the inheritance tax goes to the states. In 2021, 3.19 billion euros were set in Bavaria. When asked that the adjustment to real property values actually still applies to the grand coalition as a result of an amendment, Söder said: “The question of the effect of how these numbers are combined with the values makes the music.” In any case, the change could not possibly be introduced now, “that’s why the correction is needed”. Bavaria’s citizens are “particularly affected”. Söder gave real estate values on Tegernsee and in Greifswald in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania as an example.
On Monday, the CSU board of directors mainly dealt with national issues. Among other things, with citizen money, the successor model to Hartz IV, which is currently in the mediation committee of the Bundestag and Bundesrat. The CSU feels “as an advocate for the hard-working”, said Söder, high wealth of the unemployed and the omission of sanctions are unacceptable. Söder’s course on the issue, however, arouses the opposition’s displeasure. Green Party leader Eva Lettenbauer these days accused the CSU of an “icy-cold opposition”, Söder envies the traffic light every success and “damages millions of people in the country”.