The Free State of Bavaria wants to ensure higher allowances for inheritance tax. After the state government had failed with a corresponding initiative in the Bundesrat, it decided today to submit a norm control application to the Federal Constitutional Court. IVD President Jürgen Michael Schick says: “The current allowances have not been adjusted for 14 years. In the meantime, however, most properties have increased significantly in value. For this reason, the allowances in the event of inheritance no longer have the relieving effect that they did years ago. The adjustment of the valuation standards by the federal legislature has also led to higher tax payments in the case of inheritance since the beginning of this year. We therefore support the goal of the Bavarian state government to make the inheritance of a single-family house or a city apartment virtually tax-free by significantly increasing the allowances. However, since experience has shown that a legal review procedure before the Federal Constitutional Court takes a considerable amount of time, the federal legislature should now act decisively and ensure that the allowances are increased themselves. This would quickly compensate for the strong nominal rise in prices caused by inflation since 2009, the year the allowances were last increased.”

Source: press release IVD