In our blog of May 11th, we discussed a number of changes the Lower House wanted to make to the business succession scheme for gift and inheritance tax (BOR) and the substantial interest transfer scheme (DSR). The government was then waiting for a follow-up study on the proposed measures.
The conclusions from this study are now known from a letter from the State Secretary of Finance, which we will briefly discuss below.
Proposed changes unchanged
In the decision note accompanying the letter, we read that based on the study, no new policy has been formed compared to the measures proposed in the Spring Memorandum. For a further discussion, therefore, please refer to our earlier blog.
The State Secretary summarises the eight measures as follows:
- The exemption in the BOR will be amended so that from 2025, 100% of the goingconcern value up to €1.5 million will be exempted, and 70% of the excess;
- The 5% efficiency margin for the BOR and DSR will be abolished;
- Assets used for both non-business purposes of the company and business purposes (such as private purposes) will qualify for the BOR and DSR only to the extent they are used for business purposes in the company;
- Access to the BOR and DSR will be limited to regular shares with a minimum 5% interest in the issued share capital;
- Removal of the employment requirement in the DSR;
- The BOR and DSR can only be applied to gifts if the transferee is at least 21 years old;
- The possession and continuation requirement in the BOR will be relaxed;
- Constructions (rollover investments and double BOR) in the BOR will be addressed.
Provisional effective dates
In the letter, the State Secretary announced provisional effective dates of the measures. Measures 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 should become part of the 2024 tax plan and take effect on January 1st 2025; measures 4, 7 and 8 should become part of the 2025 tax plan and take effect on January 1st 2026.