As of: March 8, 2024, 12:30 p.m
By: Marco Blanco Ucles
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If you receive assets from an inheritance, you must pay tax on them.
How high the taxes are depends on several factors.
Inheritance does not always mean legacy.
Because you have to pay taxes depending on the assets you inherit.
However, there are also allowances on which no taxes are levied.
These depend on the degree of relationship between the heir and the deceased person, who ideally had prepared an estate register.
The online portal
Advocado.de
breaks down the different exemption amounts.
Family relationship |
Allowance |
|---|---|
Marriage and registered life partners |
500,000 euros |
Children (including adopted and stepchildren) |
400,000 euros |
grandchildren |
200,000 euros |
Parents and grandparents (in case of inheritance) |
100,000 euros |
Parents and grandparents (if gifted) |
20,000 euros |
siblings, nephews, nieces, stepparents, |
20,000 euros |
Children-in-law, parents-in-law, divorced spouses |
20,000 euros |
Other people |
20,000 euros |
Inheritance tax allowances easy to calculate
The calculation is quite simple: If, for example, your grandmother dies and bequeaths to you - whether with or without an executor - assets of 400,000 euros, you do not have to pay taxes on half of it - i.e. 200,000 euros.
However, the remaining 200,000 euros must be taxed.
The amounts shown in the table refer only to inheritance tax and have nothing to do with the income tax tax brackets.
Not everyone has to pay the same tax rate for inheritance tax - the tax class is crucial.
© Steinach/IMAGO
If you deduct the allowances, the question is how high the tax rates will be on the remaining amount.
The tax rate depends on two factors: the degree of relationship to the testator and the amount left behind.
A distinction is made between three tax classes.
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Close relatives can be found in tax class I.
These include spouses, registered life partners and children – including adopted or stepchildren.
The second tax bracket includes siblings, divorced spouses, nieces, nephews and stepparents.
All other relatives or friends are assigned to tax class III.
The tax rates increase depending on the assets left behind and increasing tax brackets.
assets left behind until |
Tax rate in tax class I |
Tax rate in tax class II |
Tax rate in tax class III |
|---|---|---|---|
75,000 euros |
7 percent |
15 percent |
30 percent |
300,000 euros |
11 percent |
20 percent |
30 percent |
600,000 euros |
15 percent |
25 percent |
30 percent |
6,000,000 euros |
19 percent |
30 percent |
30 percent |
13,000,000 euros |
23 percent |
35 percent |
50 percent |
26,000,000 euros |
27 percent |
40 percent |
50 percent |
more than 26,000,000 euros |
30 percent |
43 percent |
50 percent |
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At least one month to complete the inheritance tax return
You must report it to the tax office within three months of knowing the amount of the inheritance.
This will then check whether you have to pay inheritance tax.
As soon as your tax office is of this opinion, which can often take some time, it will send you the inheritance tax declaration form.
Attached to this tax form are attachments and instructions that are intended to make filling out the declaration easier,
Finanztip.de
informs .
If filling out the forms is still too complicated for you, it is advisable to get a tax advisor to help you.
The tax office must give you at least one month to submit the inheritance tax return.