Kommentar: Bei der Erbschaftsteuer zeigt sich die Absurdität deutscher Debatten
Karlsruhe verhandelt über die Steuerprivilegien von Firmenerben. Für diese Privilegien gibt es gute Gründe, sie haben aber auch fragwürdige Folgen. Dabei gäbe es eine pragmatische Lösung.
Despite the ongoing deliberations by the judges at the Federal Constitutional Court, the public and political opinion have already pronounced their verdict on the inheritance tax. In a class-conscious manner, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens, and the Left are advocating for higher taxation of wealthy heirs. The ruling coalition, the Union, is defending the existing rules, not because they are convinced of their merits, but because they do not believe they can implement a reasonable reform and they do not trust their coalition partner for this task.
Instead of pragmatically addressing the reform of a complex and partially unjust system, ideological simplifiers dominate the debate. The left-leaning critics particularly dominate, creating the impression that the state would simply waive taxes for wealthy heirs who have tens of millions of euros in their accounts. The criticized privileges specifically target business assets located within inherited companies, linked to employment and wage benchmarks.
The claim that inheritance does not lead to the sale of the company or to reduced investments to pay the tax is also in line with public opinion.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
