Germany’s state finance ministers discuss property tax reforms (DE)

The Faz and the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on the latest meeting of Germany's Federal State Finance Ministers on 08.09.2016, during which Hesse’s Finance Minister, Thomas Schäfer (CDU), led discussions on reform of property transfer taxes. By November, the ministers hope to have agreed on a method to prevent companies engaging in large-scale property acquisitions via share deals. Currently, property transfer taxes only apply when at least 95 per cent of the ownership of real property changes hands, which means that the tax can be avoided when a deal involves shares rather than real property. Over the last few years, Germany’s federal states have increased their property transfer taxes from 3.5% to as much as 6.5%.