Tax & Legal

According to Section 7 (8) sentence 1 of the Inheritance and Gift Tax Act, the increase in value of shares in a corporation is deemed to be a gift. In a most recently published decision, the Supreme Tax Court held that this provision does not contain any subjective elements, neither in the form of awareness of the gratuitous nature nor of an intention of personal enrichment.

In a recent judgment the Supreme Tax Court decided that the increase in value of shares in a corporation for the purposes of inheritance and gift tax must be determined in accordance with the rules of Section 11 of the Valuation Act. For this purpose, the market value of the beneficiary's share prior the transfer must be compared with the market value of this share after the contribution.

The finance ministries of the provinces have instructed all tax offices to issue notifications of land values provisionally pending a Constitutional Court decision.