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The HBR article cites the high inheritance tax in the U.S. as reason for the low number of middle class jobs. But, to the contrary, today the inheritance tax i

The HBR article cites the high inheritance tax in the U.S. as reason for the low number of middle class jobs. But, to the contrary, today the inheritance tax in the U.S. is lower than in Germany.

WillPostForFood 9y ago
I'm not sure that's right, the German max rate is lower, though it might kick in at a lower level. Regardless of the rate, there are big exemptions for the transfer of businesses in Germany that definitely give the the advantage in that specific case.
therealdrag0 9y ago
I didn't really understand that point? Is the claim that if there was no inheritance tax, a family would accumulate enough money to start a mid-sized business? Or is the ownership of a business taxed upon death?
- pgeorgi 9y ago
  An inheritance can include a company, if privately held. That company has a value, and that's taxed through inheritance tax. The problem is that a company of value $x rarely has liquid assets of $x*$taxrate, so inheriting a company can mean personal ruin. On the _other_ hand, not accounting for companies in inheritance tax means that every family ever will shift all its possessions into a company. Roughly speaking, Germany solved this by creating a set of exceptions for value "in a company", as long as it continues to be held for a given number of years (otherwise, since it was sold, it's considered a liquid asset and thus fully taxable).
  - easilyBored 9y ago
    On the _other_ hand, not accounting for companies in inheritance tax means that every family ever will shift all its possessions into a company. No taxes if a company has an employee that makes at least x00% of minimum wage for every, say $500K of worth. So your parents leave you a company that has a $20mm value and you have 40 employees that average $35,000 a year, you pay no inheritance taxes. Of course you need you'd to set a reasonable timeable to discourage cheating, otherwise they'd sell /fire 50% as soon as the x year timeline expires.
pcrh 9y ago
Indeed, that doesn't seem to be a very plausible contribution to the success of the Mittelstand. In the US, inheritances large enough to capitalize a mid-sized company are usually protected from inheritance taxes through a number of "tax-efficient structures".

The HBR article cites the high inheritance tax in the U.S. as reason for the low number of middle class jobs. But, to the contrary, today the inheritance tax in the U.S. is lower than in Germany.

WillPostForFood 9y ago

I'm not sure that's right, the German max rate is lower, though it might kick in at a lower level. Regardless of the rate, there are big exemptions for the transfer of businesses in Germany that definitely give the the advantage in that specific case.

therealdrag0 9y ago

I didn't really understand that point? Is the claim that if there was no inheritance tax, a family would accumulate enough money to start a mid-sized business? Or is the ownership of a business taxed upon death?

pgeorgi 9y ago
An inheritance can include a company, if privately held. That company has a value, and that's taxed through inheritance tax. The problem is that a company of value $x rarely has liquid assets of $x*$taxrate, so inheriting a company can mean personal ruin. On the _other_ hand, not accounting for companies in inheritance tax means that every family ever will shift all its possessions into a company. Roughly speaking, Germany solved this by creating a set of exceptions for value "in a company", as long as it continues to be held for a given number of years (otherwise, since it was sold, it's considered a liquid asset and thus fully taxable).
- easilyBored 9y ago
  On the _other_ hand, not accounting for companies in inheritance tax means that every family ever will shift all its possessions into a company. No taxes if a company has an employee that makes at least x00% of minimum wage for every, say $500K of worth. So your parents leave you a company that has a $20mm value and you have 40 employees that average $35,000 a year, you pay no inheritance taxes. Of course you need you'd to set a reasonable timeable to discourage cheating, otherwise they'd sell /fire 50% as soon as the x year timeline expires.

pcrh 9y ago

Indeed, that doesn't seem to be a very plausible contribution to the success of the Mittelstand. In the US, inheritances large enough to capitalize a mid-sized company are usually protected from inheritance taxes through a number of "tax-efficient structures".