Federal Fiscal Court clarifies the eligibility of trading companies for inheritance tax benefits

The so-called 90% management assets test (90% test for short) plays an important role in the question of whether business assets can be transferred with preferential inheritance tax treatment. It forms a kind of “entry threshold”. Only the shares of those companies that pass this test - i.e. have less than 90% gross administrative assets - can participate in tax relief at all. If the test fails, however, the transferred shares are subject to taxation in full.