Karlsruhe
Bavaria files a constitutional complaint against inheritance tax
The Federal Constitutional Court deals with inheritance tax. photo
© Hans-Jürgen Wiedl/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
For months, Bavaria’s government officials have been grumbling about the federal inheritance rules. For them it is a fight for justice. Now the case is with Germany’s top judges.
The Bavarian state government has filed its constitutional complaint against the inheritance tax with the Federal Constitutional Court, which has been threatened again and again for months.
“From now on it is in the hands of the court to assess and hopefully close the gap between tax exemptions that have stagnated for 14 years and drastically increasing real estate prices,” said Bavaria’s Finance Minister Albert Füracker (CSU) of the German Press Agency in Munich. According to the information, the lawsuit was filed on Friday.
Allowances not increased since 2008
The motion is intended to pave the way for an increase in personal allowances, a reduction in tax rates and a regionalization of inheritance tax via a constitutional review of the law. The allowances for inheritance tax have not increased since 2008. In contrast, according to Bavaria’s criticism, inflation and land and real estate prices have risen massively.
“We have tried many times to convince the federal government to increase the allowances for inheritance tax – we are always given the cold shoulder. Therefore, Bavaria had no choice but to sue,” said Füracker. The federal states are entitled to the full amount of inheritance tax, so they should decide on the structure. “Bavaria’s lawsuit aims to regionalize inheritance tax – for lower tax rates and higher tax exemptions. Everyone must be able to inherit their parents’ house without inheritance tax forcing them to sell it. We are threatened with selling out our homeland.”
Property values vary across the country
Bavaria also complains about the tax that the value of land has developed very differently nationwide and that the heirs in Bavaria are disadvantaged because higher taxes are incurred here. Uniform federal allowances and tax rates are unfair and do not do justice to regional conditions.
In this context, Füracker renewed his massive criticism of Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP), who in spring 2022 had rejected the Bavarian initiative to increase the allowances and announced that this was “not on the agenda”. “At the same time, hidden in a 150-page draft law, new rules for real estate valuation were introduced, which will lead to significantly higher inheritance taxes,” said Füracker.
Lindner accuses CSU of campaign maneuvers
Lindner himself had accused the CSU of transparent election campaign maneuvers with the lawsuit. The federal government cannot – as claimed by Söder and other representatives of the state government – “single-handedly decide on the loss of tax revenue, which is due to the states alone. Such an initiative must therefore come from the majority of the states.” Representatives of other parties also see Bavaria’s current frenzy as an election campaign maneuver. Just a few days ago, the Free State, like the CSU, filed a lawsuit in Karlsruhe against the new electoral law for the Bundestag. A new state parliament will be elected in Bavaria on October 8th.
Füracker does not accept Lindner’s criticism: “We are talking about a federal law here, the Federal Minister of Finance and his party can act at any time. Instead of finally creating facts, reference is only made to the federal states – that borders on refusal to work.”