Bundesverfassungsgericht: Karlsruhe prüft Klage zu Steuervorteilen für Firmenerben

The Bundesverfassungsgericht in Karlsruhe is currently examining a lawsuit concerning tax benefits for firm heirs in inheritance tax. The issue of fair taxation for all taxpayers, especially through inheritance tax, was highlighted by Gerichtspräsident Stephan Harbarth at the beginning of the oral proceedings in Karlsruhe. This was contrasted with concerns about the economic survival of the affected companies and the preservation of their employees' jobs.

Harbarth emphasized that these are complex political questions, which are not the subject of the current proceedings. The court was only dealing with the issue of the constitutionality of the norms being challenged. A man who inherited exclusively private assets from his aunt, without a tax-privileged business asset, has initiated the proceedings.

The judges in Karlsruhe are to determine whether the differing tax regulations constitutionally disadvantage him. A judgment is expected in a few months. Kühnert: "The need-based assessment 'invites to arm counting'." The Inheritance and Gift Tax Act provides for various advantages for firm heirs. For example, the tax can be waived for large business assets over 26 million euros if the heir can prove that they cannot pay the tax privately.

The criticism often centers around the fact that heirs previously "calculated themselves as poor" to evade the tax. Former SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert, who now works with the financial movement Finanzwende, stated in Karlsruhe: "The exemption need test since 2016 invites to arm counting." It does not inquire any more about what is necessary to protect companies and jobs, but only whether the entrepreneur is liquid.

If the entrepreneur prepares himself by moving money to other places on the cut-off date, the tax liability disappears unilaterally. "This encourages many people," Kühnert said. Requirements for exemption of large assets The Federal Constitutional Court had ruled in 2014 that the tax benefits for business assets then in force were too far-reaching, being disproportionate if they extended beyond small and medium-sized enterprises without providing for a need test.

In the current proceedings, it will also likely be seen whether Berlin has correctly implemented the provisions from Karlsruhe at that time. The proceedings raise the question again of the limits set by the Grundgesetz for the legislature in designing exemption rules, said Harbarth. It will also concern, among other things, the "requirements for the exemption of large business assets" and to what extent the concrete design of the challenged provisions will be guided by the objective of the legislator.