House on parents' property - inheritance problems?

What is your goal with the house? Do you want to transfer it into your ownership, or will you let everything continue as it is?

We will probably just write a letter to the tax office and ask how they intend to handle this in the event of inheritance. Maybe they see it the way we do, that the house is to be attributed to me for tax purposes, and therefore no inheritance tax applies to the house. That would be the only problem I see.

And as for the rear property: we used to lease the property and bought it about 25 years ago. The district office simply missed exercising its right of first refusal at that time, which they have been very upset about in hindsight. Therefore, I assume they won't let that happen again. And if someone eventually buys the front property, knowing that they can still build a house on the rear part, then of course they want to use the rear property as a garden. If it is then snatched away from them right under their nose, and a public green space starts three meters from the house, then I suppose I would only have to hope that the person doesn’t find me and doesn’t recognize me anywhere...

The inheritance case being dealt with here is by far the lesser risk. Much more dangerous is the already mentioned and ignored case of needing long-term care. Your house is not occupied by the owner himself. I do not know if it also plays a role here that your father lives in another house on the same property. But there is definitely the risk that your house will have to be sold to cover the care home costs. YOU should clarify this immediately!

We will probably just write a letter to the tax office and ask how they intend to handle it in the case of inheritance. Maybe they see it the same way we do, that the house is fiscally attributable to me, and therefore no inheritance tax applies to the house. That would be the only problem I see.

Don’t put too much hope in the tax office, because they are only allowed to inform you within the scope of a binding ruling, which of course is subject to a fee, about how they intend to handle the case. The tax office is prohibited by the Tax Consultancy Act from providing business-like assistance in tax matters.

So if you want advice on tax issues, the only way that will help you is to consult a tax advisor.

Do not place too much hope in the tax office, because it is only allowed to inform you within the framework of a binding ruling, which of course is subject to a fee, how it intends to handle the case.
According to the Tax Advisory Act, the tax office is prohibited from commercially providing assistance in tax matters.

So if you want advice on tax issues, only a tax advisor can help you.

And to my knowledge, no open questions are allowed in the binding ruling, but you must already provide the solution approach with legal justification. Then you receive the answer whether the tax office bindingly agrees with the solution or not.

Requirements for Information Request

An application for information pursuant to § 1 para. 1 StAuskV must therefore contain the following information:

[*]the exact designation of the applicant (name, for natural persons residence or general place of abode, for corporations, associations of persons and assets the registered office or place of management, if available tax number),
[*]a comprehensive and self-contained presentation of the facts not yet realized at the time of application,
[*]the explanation of the applicant’s special tax interest,
[*]a detailed presentation of the legal problem with in-depth justification of the applicant’s own legal position,
[*]the formulation of concrete legal questions,
[*]the declaration that no binding ruling has been requested from any other tax authority named in § 89 para. 2 sentence 2 and 3 of the Fiscal Code (AO) (tax offices or Federal Central Tax Office) regarding the facts submitted for assessment, as well as
[*]the assurance that all information necessary for issuing the ruling and for its assessment has been provided and is truthful.

Otto Normal probably cannot manage this on his own without a tax advisor.

I also suspected that a tax office does not just provide information or answer questions. I did not know that there are even actual paragraphs about it.