The cooperative model, which is supposed to enable people without much capital to make sure-fire-proof housing at low rents, is increasingly being used, according to SPIEGEL information, for private gain. Asset managers and tax advisers offer their clients tailor-made "family cooperatives" for them. Wealthy individuals no longer buy their own buildings or land or through a company, but through a tax-privileged cooperative.
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For example, a consultant from Baden-Württemberg advertises to private investors for the family cooperative to "asset accumulation" and "to really save taxes." The financial sector makes use of the tax benefits that legislators have created for housing cooperatives. Thus, neither land acquisition taxes on the introduction of real estate in the cooperative due, nor rental income must be fully taxed.
For private investors, the model has additional charm. Since the real estate does not belong to them privately, but to the co-operative founded by them, they are not subject to inheritance tax.
The Treasury escapes millions
"In our view, this construct is incompatible with cooperative law," says Ingeborg Esser, managing director of the Federal Association of German Housing and Real Estate Companies. Lisa Paus, housing spokeswoman for the Greens in the Bundestag, demands: "The misuse of the cooperative for tax avoidance is quickly over."
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After all, the misappropriation of cooperatives is just another indication of a fundamental problem. Financial advisers and lawyers are always finding new loopholes in law in order to legally package return-worthy real estate transactions for their clientele - with as little tax burden as possible. The Treasury escapes millions each year in three digits. For this purpose, houses and plots of land are put into company coats, disguised as funds or even cooperatives.
Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) now wants to close some of the loopholes in the Annual Tax Law. For example, so-called share deals, which can largely be used to circumvent land transfer tax in the case of real estate transactions, are to be made much more difficult. Scholz also wants to stem the abuse of tax privileges for cooperatives.
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