Posted on 08/17/2010 6:10:13 AM PDT by markomalley
KARLSRUHE, Germany (Reuters) - Germany's highest court has ruled a law which makes homosexuals living in civil partnerships pay higher inheritance tax is unconstitutional.
The Federal Constitutional Court said there were no legal grounds for taxing gay people who lost their partner differently from heterosexual married couples, and gave the government until 2011 to compensate those subject to the previous rules.
The Karlsruhe-based court said on Tuesday the fact that heterosexual marriage could produce children did not justify higher taxation for homosexuals over inheritance.
Germany has permitted civil unions for homosexuals since 2001. According to the law, surviving partners had to pay higher inheritance duties, and were also granted a lower tax exemption threshold than their heterosexual counterparts.
Depending on the inheritance, homosexuals have been subject to a rate of taxation that could be up to 20 percentage points higher than heterosexual widows or widowers.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
The proper course of action is to set the death tax rate to 0. No one should have to pay tax on money that was inherited.
Correct logic but when the current crowd looks at it, they will say it is only logical to tax at 100%!
Abolish the death tax for everybody and allow anyone to inherit property that has already been taxed when earned.
Exactly.
They opened this can of worms, now they can eat the rewards.
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