Steuer: Finanzamt fordert Steuer – obwohl der Erbe leer ausgeht

When an heir inherits nothing, they might expect a tax refund. However, the German Federal Finance Court clarified that even in such cases, inheritance tax could still be demanded. The case originated from the 2006 death of an estate owner who had planned his inheritance differently by drafting a handwritten will. The will allocated his assets equally among a man, his mother, and another woman.

However, upon the estate owner's death, the legal heirs requested a death certificate at the district court, which only mentioned the statutory heirs with equal shares. Eight years later, the death certificate reappeared, and the man sought his inheritance. Afterward, a new death certificate was issued, granting each of the three individuals one-third of the estate.

In 2017, the man learned that his grandfather's inheritance entitled him to a statutory share of 250,000 euros, which had already been paid out to the two legal heirs in 2013. Despite having no inheritance, the man challenged the inheritance tax assessment in 2018, requesting it to be set to zero. The tax authority rejected his objection, and he subsequently filed a lawsuit in the Düsseldorf Finance Court.

During the litigation, the tax authority also refused the claim for a zero euro tax settlement as unreasonable. The man argued that he had been unsuccessful in his attempts to invalidate the original death certificate and obtain information from the other heirs. After nine years of unsuccessful efforts, it emerged that the two legal heirs had exhausted the estate by 2016, with one of them receiving social security benefits from it since 2012.

Both women lived abroad at the time. The Finance Court ruled against the main claim for the overturning of the inheritance tax assessment but ordered the tax authority to set the tax to zero. The authority considered this an incorrect application of § 163 AO and appealed to the Federal Finance Court. The federal court agreed with the assessment and referred the case back to the Finance Court for further review.

The Federal Finance Court emphasized that the tax authority could grant a lower tax assessment when an inheritance is absent due to no fault of the heir, provided they make every effort to secure the estate or seek substitute claims. The burden of proof rests with the heir in such cases.