The federal budget will have to be saved heavily in the future. According to Lindner, anyone who buys a house or apartment should be relieved. The countries affected would be missing billions.
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) is appealing to the federal states to reduce or completely eliminate the real estate transfer tax for real estate buyers who use their own homes.
“In order to enable more people in Germany to live in owner-occupied property, the federal states are authorized to make the property transfer tax more flexible in order to facilitate the acquisition of owner-occupied property,” says a draft discussion from the Federal Ministry of Finance, which is available to the dpa.
High construction costs and interest rates have made it almost impossible for families to buy property, Lindner wrote on Twitter. “Savings go to the state when you buy something. We should therefore give the countries the legal opportunity to waive the real estate transfer tax on real estate they use themselves.”
The Ministry of Finance emphasized that it was a first draft that had been sent to the countries. “This is a first step in entering into a dialogue with the countries.”
The proposal would give the federal states the opportunity to offer a reduced tax rate or to limit it to an exemption, according to the paper, which the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” had previously reported: “With a reduced tax rate of zero percent to one With a certain basis of assessment, a country can also achieve the effect of an exemption.”
Few incentives for countries
The Federal Ministry of Finance had already proposed a reform of the real estate transfer tax for owner-occupied living space in May, including a tax exemption and reduced tax rates. However, the approval of the Federal Council is required for such a regulation. In addition, the federal states have little incentive to do so: the real estate transfer tax is one of the state taxes, so the income goes into their coffers. Last year, the federal states took in a good 17 billion euros with the real estate transfer tax.
Since a reform in 2006, the federal states have been able to set the amount of the real estate transfer tax themselves, and many have increased it significantly since then. Depending on the federal state, the tax accounts for between 5 and 6.5 percent of the purchase price, only Bavaria has left the rate at 3.5 percent.
In the draft, the Ministry of Finance also opposes the circumvention of real estate transfer tax with the help of real estate companies (“share deals”). Particularly in the case of high-priced transactions, it was said that “design measures could be used to avoid real estate transfer tax”. “The majority of market participants and the general public consider these arrangements to be unfair and should be stopped.”
Source: Stern
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