In response to a request by the Liberal Democrats the German Goverment today published a report which shows that since the year 1991 tax revenue from gift and inheritance tax has almost tripled. While the revenue was about 1.35 billion Euros back in 1991, it amounted to 3.76 billion Euros in 2006.
The increase is almost entirely attributable to the West German Laender. The revenue from the Eastern Laender hardly carries any weight. Here the revenue rose from 2.4 million Euros in the year 1991 to 62.7 million in the year 2006.
The percentage of revenue from inheritance tax in proportion to the total tax revenue was highest in Bavaria and amounted to 3.01 percent, followed by Baden-Württemberg with 2.75% and Schleswig-Holstein with 2.71%. In the New Laender the percentage in question was consistently below one percent and lowest in Thuringia with 0.17%. On average the percentage was 2.36% in the West and 0.25% in the East.
In relation to the total German tax revenue inheritance tax revenue amounted to just 0.53% in the year 2005, whereas the figures for France, the USA, the Netherlands, Spain and Great Britain were 1.18%, 0.92%, 0.86% and 0.71% respectively. 