The preferential treatment of business assets for inheritance and gift tax purposes is not applicable on so called young administrative assets that belong to the business for less than two years. It has been controversially discussed if the two years may include periods in which the administrative assets belonged to another corporate group entity. The Federal Tax Court decided on 22 January 2020 (file number II R 41/18) that in case of an upstream merger the two-year period for young administrative assets of the merged company begins anew following the merger.
Dr. Nils Wighardt and Jonathan Storz published remarks on the decision and a statement regarding implications on the situation following the inheritance and gift tax reform 2016 in the tax journal DStZ 2020, p. 815 et seq.
