Overview
- Germany’s SPD published a reform outline to tax very large inheritances more, proposing about €1 million as a lifetime personal allowance and roughly €5 million tax‑free for business transfers while abolishing key reliefs, with expected extra revenue initially in the low billions for education.
- At a Halle business event, Chancellor Friedrich Merz asked the SPD to hold off to prevent uncertainty for medium‑sized firms and to await the Federal Constitutional Court’s inheritance‑tax decision expected in 2026.
- Business advocates, including the association of family enterprises, argue a €5 million company allowance would not reliably protect typical Mittelstand successions.
- Merz said he would scrap the Working Time Act to allow more flexibility and longer hours, prompting Social Democratic pushback that the law safeguards employee health.
- In Saxony, a new alliance of municipalities and business leaders pressed for real staff cuts to 80,000 by 2035, faster permitting and a higher investment share, while in Saxony‑Anhalt the AfD’s arbitration court suspended MP Jan Wenzel Schmidt’s party rights pending an exclusion case.