Overview

• Destatis reported 2024 assessments up 12.3% to €13.3 billion, with €8.5 billion from inheritance tax (+9.5%) and €4.8 billion from gift tax (+17.8%), both at new highs.
• Assessed transfers amounted to about €113.2 billion, down 6.8% year over year, as business-asset handovers fell sharply, while gift-tax liabilities have risen steadily since 2019 and more than doubled since 2021.
• SPD figures are pressing for higher levies to ease budget gaps, Bavaria’s Markus Söder is pushing to let states set the tax and cut rates, and Chancellor Friedrich Merz says such changes have little chance for now.
• Researchers and advocacy groups say reliefs curb potential receipts: the IMK estimates roughly €17 billion in annual tax privileges, and a new “Ehrensache Erbschaftsteuer” campaign urges ending exemptions for billionaires.
• Destatis data indicate a heavy concentration at the top, with about one third of assessed inheritance-tax revenue attributed to roughly 226 very large cases.