Overview
- Werding, a member of the government’s advisory council, argues that generous exemptions for business assets violate the constitutional principle of equal taxation.
- He says higher levies on large inheritances must apply across all asset classes, with companies receiving relief through long payment deferrals rather than broad exemptions.
- The SPD has tabled a reform plan with a one-million-euro lifetime allowance per person and a tax-free inherited primary residence, with progressive rates above those thresholds.
- The proposal includes a five-million-euro exemption for business assets and the option to spread tax payments over 20 years, which the party says would ease transfers for SMEs.
- Several cases on the current law are pending at the Federal Constitutional Court, past versions were struck down in 1995, 2006 and 2014, and the Union and industry groups criticize the SPD’s approach as a tax increase.