Steuer: Finanzamt fordert Steuer – obwohl der Erbe leer ausgeht
Selbst wenn ein Erbe erst spät von seinem Anspruch erfährt und leer ausgeht, fällt Erbschaftsteuer an. Der Bundesfinanzhof klärte, wieso das so ist – und welche Ausnahmen es gibt.
The German tax authority, the Finanzamt, seeks tax from inheritances even when the heir ends up with nothing. This situation arises when the deceased had no assets to leave behind. However, the mere existence of an unclear inheritance scenario can result in the estate being valued at zero euros after all formalities and procedures.
Whether the Finanzamt can still demand inheritance tax in such cases was recently clarified by the Federal Finance Court (case II R 1/22). The deceased, who passed away in 2006, had initially planned differently. He had left behind a handwritten testament appointing a man, his mother, and another woman as heirs, intending to divide the inheritance equally among them.
Upon the deceased's death, the legal heirs of the deceased applied to the responsible district court for a death certificate. Since the court was unaware of the testament and its contents, the death certificate only listed the legal heirs, each receiving half of the estate.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
