Inheritance and gift tax / succession

More than 30 years of experience and trust

STRECK MACK SCHWEDHELM has always focussed on providing tax advice and representation in disputes with the tax authorities regarding inheritance and gift tax as well as (anticipated) succession planning and its implementation. We have more than 30 years of experience in both areas and enjoy the trust of our clients.

I. Inheritance and gift tax disputes with the tax authorities

We advise and represent you in all inheritance and gift tax disputes with the tax authorities. This begins with the notification of the gift or acquisition by reason of death and continues through the hearing and assessment procedure before the central and specialised inheritance and gift tax offices up to the objection procedure. We also represent you in any subsequent legal proceedings before the specialised senates of the tax courts and in appeal and revision proceedings before the Federal Fiscal Court. We are one of the few law firms in Germany that is (successfully) responsible for a large number of the appeal proceedings pending before the Second Senate of the Federal Fiscal Court, which is responsible for inheritance and gift tax law.

Clients appreciate not only our work as litigation lawyers, but also the interaction with our substantive expertise in inheritance and gift tax law. This symbiosis also enables us to enforce such (complex) tax structures in legal disputes with the tax authorities, which we have not designed ourselves.
We can round off the range of advice in legal disputes with the tax authorities with our expertise in criminal tax law. This is primarily relevant for the transfer of concealed assets, but also increasingly for gift tax optimisation models.

II. Remedial counselling

If the tax dispute regarding the gift or inheritance tax assessment is not (likely) to be successful, we will point out possible remedies. This concerns, for example, the tax-neutral reversal of gifts including the change of the matrimonial property regime as well as reinvestments in the case of the tax exemption of business assets.

III. Advice on succession planning

Another focus is the structuring of inheritances and gifts. The key issues here are asset succession and asset protection.

1. Family, economic and civil law

We focus on family and economic considerations when it comes to asset succession and asset protection. The structuring and transfer of assets should always be in line with the family strategy and the values of a family and, where possible, endeavour to avoid disputes within the family.
The protection of family assets can be directed against third parties, but also against the family itself - such as the avoidance of family and inheritance law claims in order to strengthen the cohesion of the assets.
In order to achieve this, our team's activities include, in particular, civil law advice. For example, we advise on and draft wills, inheritance contracts, waivers of compulsory portions and anticipated succession through company transfers, gifts of land and money, family foundations and family businesses. As advisors for advisors, we also support executors of wills.

2. Tax

We only adjust the wheels of tax law if a structure leads to sensible family and economic results. Here we offer the full range of the legal toolbox of inheritance and gift tax law. In addition to tax planning models, the focus here is on tax relief for business assets, the utilisation of (personal) allowances and tax progressions, including through chain gifts, the transfer of the family home and the change of matrimonial property regime.
In addition to optimising the inheritance tax burden, good tax advice on succession also includes consideration of other tax aspects, e.g. income taxation, international tax law and real estate transfer tax. We also offer this from a single source.

Legal certainty in structuring is an important asset for the client. Where structuring models are not backed up by case law, we offer the option of obtaining binding information from the Inheritance and Gift Tax Office and, if necessary, the Income Tax Office.

3. Tust

Succession counselling and structuring intervene in the client's most private areas like hardly any other (tax) activity. Only if you as the client trust the advisor and open up to him can he design and implement concepts and options according to your ideas. We seek personal contact and offer you many years of experience and personalised advice through the partner responsible for you. Our clients trust our expertise.

VI Consultancy personalities, publications, lectures

Our consultants are continuously active in specialist publications on inheritance and gift tax, income tax and inheritance law topics - for example in ErbR, ErbStB, Zerb, DStR, BB, Stbg. and FR - and act as speakers at tax consultant associations, Euroforum, Otto Schmidt Verlag, Beck Verlag, DAA and DAV. We demonstrate our comprehensive expertise as event organisers, for example at the Otto Schmidt publishing house, the ErbR conference, the German Inheritance Law Conference, as well as in leading positions on various committees, e.g. in the German Bar Association. Dr Klaus Olbing, Dr Heinz-Willi Kamps and Dr Jens Stenert, who are responsible for succession planning at partner level, are regularly highlighted as leading lawyers in the field of tax law, e.g. in Fokus or Wirtschaftswoche, and Dr Kamps also in the field of inheritance law.