Inherit your parents’ house tax-free and still sell it

Berlin Most people find it particularly stressful when they have to give up their family home for many years. The experience is all the more depressing when the tax office then also reports with an inheritance tax assessment.

The following rule applies: the family home can be inherited tax-free if the heirs continue to live in it for at least ten years. Anyone who moves out earlier can claim the statutory allowances – for spouses, for example, this is EUR 500.00. If the house is worth more with the rest of the inheritance, inheritance tax must be paid afterwards.

This was the experience of two women who had each inherited the house they used less than ten years ago. The Federal Fiscal Court recently decided on both cases.

In the first case, a wife had inherited half of the single-family home from her husband that she lived in herself. His children inherited the remainder of the family home, but they signed it over to the widow.