German Inheritance Tax: some questions if I may.

Calahonda52

I know this is an Irish website but perhaps someone here would have some thoughts/links on these questions.

Spousal tax free allowance
from
https://www.german-probate-lawyer.com/en/detail/article/german-inheritance-tax-1452.html

"Spousal tax free allowance
An additional tax free allowance of up to EUR 256,000 is granted to the surviving spouse; provided that the surviving spouse is not entitled to pension payments upon the death of the spouse which are not subject to German Inheritance tax (see above). If the surviving spouse is entitled to such pension payments, the allowance will be reduced by the net present value of such pension claims."

My question is how this calculation is done: i.e. what is the discount rate and what duration.

My widowed friend will receive 60% of her late husband's pension so I want to see how the math is done and what the reduction in the Spousal Tax free allowance will be.

Ownership of cars

Like in Ireland the cars can only be registered in one name for insurance purposes.
My question is, given that they were bought from joint income, can car ownership be taken as shared, i.e. 50/50.

There is no tax free transfer of individually owned assets on death in Germany and the values are quite high.

Thanks as always

dogsears

I'd say you've no chance of a definitive answer on the German aspects here. You might be able to get an Irish actuary/pension consultant to tell you how the discount etc would be worked out here i.e. as if the same situation were to apply in Ireland. But that would only be a guide at best.

However I believe the German authorities do operate very good public helplines - you could start here http://www.bzst.de/EN/SIC/sic_node.html - this links to an English language page but if you phone them I'm not sure if you have to be able to talk to them in German or if they have English speakers.

Calahonda52

dogsears wrote: »

I'd say you've no chance of a definitive answer on the German aspects here. You might be able to get an Irish actuary/pension consultant to tell you how the discount etc would be worked out here i.e. as if the same situation were to apply in Ireland. But that would only be a guide at best.

However I believe the German authorities do operate very good public helplines - you could start here http://www.bzst.de/EN/SIC/sic_node.html - this links to an English language page but if you phone them I'm not sure if you have to be able to talk to them in German or if they have English speakers.

Much obliged for this piece of work, thank you.

Found an email address for Lower Saxony tax office so have emailed them.

the phone help desk seems to be limited to 3 specific categories.
However, your link was very useful, thanks again.