Tax & Legal

Payments made by the purchaser of a parcel of real estate to a third party constitute consideration within the meaning of Section 9 (2) Number 3 of the Real Estate Transfer Tax Act only if the third party is in such a powerful legal position to prevent the purchaser from acquiring the property, and the purchaser is aware of these circumstances when making the payment.

In three cases and following oral proceedings on 12 November 2025, the Supreme Tax Court held that using the capitalized earnings value method for the valuation of residential property to determine the land tax from January 1, 2025, to be constitutional.

The payment for an eco-account connected to the property under state law is part of the consideration for the purchase of the property and must be included in the assessment basis for real estate transfer tax. This was decided by the Supreme Tax Court in a most recent judgment.

Serious doubts as to whether a distribution of an estate will lead to a change in the shareholder structure of at least 90% of the shares in a property-owning limited liability company within the meaning of Section 1(2b) of the Real Estate Transfer Tax Act (RETTA)

On 10 April 2018, the German Constitutional Court pronounced as unconstitutional the provisions on the valuation of property for the purposes of real estate tax and demanded new regulations

The Supreme Tax Court has decided that where an intermediary partnership holds direct or indirect interests in a real-estate-owning company, the relevant holding for establishing its interest in the related real-estate holding company, is its interest in the capital of the partnership and not the interest in the jointly owned property according to the law of property.

Profits arising from the sale of an interest in a partnership are not to be included in the extended trade tax deduction for real estate enterprises.