331–340 of 567 posts
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It is not so easy as you describe.
You definitely need advice from professionals, yes. All included, I'd expect it to cost 5k€-30k€, but not more.
For a less emotional explanation of exit tax see https://www.grantthornton.de/en/insights/exit-tax-topic-hub . > The purpose of this rule is to tax the increase in value of these shares that came about in Germany but has not yet been realised before they are able to escape the reach of German taxes by the move abroad. Doesn't sound all that crazy to me. Also, the proposed analogy to the Berlin wall feels quite pathet…
Or you could pay your fair share to contribute back to the country that supported you initially by providing education, labour, infrastructure, etc. The moment we talk about piracy it's all about how poor billionaires will have to sleep in their cars if you make a digital copy of something you would not have otherwise bought, but when it comes to supporting the society that created you and your wealth, suddenly it's…
Pretty sure “fair” means both sides agree that it’s fair. You can’t just say “I think it’s fair that I take a half of what you made”.
You could say that people know what the conditions are before starting the business, so they implicitly agree that it’s fair if they start.
But this article exactly explains what to expect because people don’t know it beforehand, and thus they now can make better informed decisions.
The crazy thing is that as a business owner (GmbH/AG) you can’t even move to another EU country any more since 2022. As the owner of such a company it feels like I have become a slave of the government.
You should probably look up what the word "slave" is about, and you'll probably realize that it refers to a situation very different from yours.
It’s not as crazy as it initially seems. It’s because of a fundamental difference between how capital gains tax and income tax are collected. Capital gains are deferred - so as years pass you’re working up a tax liability but most countries recognize that forcing collection every year is not practical given the often illiquid nature of capital gains and the difficulty around valuation. I’m from a country which has no…
Well if you force collection on gains every year, what happens if the value of the asset goes down? Will the government pay you back? Opens up a huge can of worms...
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You made money before taking the loan, as your property increased in value. Taking a loan is a way of realizing the profit, but you can of course also sell your real estate. The money is paid back during the course of decades, when that money will be worth 1/4, 1/3 or half to what it is worth now. And your real estate is ripe to be mortgaged again for another jackpot payout. Hundreds of millions of people all over th…
> You made money before taking the loan, as your property increased in value. Taking a loan is a way of realizing the profit, but you can of course also sell your real estate. That's incorrect on both counts. You did not make money and the loan is not a way to realize the profit since you have to pay it back, as explained before. I think this illustrates that finance and accounting are very poorly understood topic an…
The money is paid back over a long period of time, while the currency depreciates in value and the real estate appreciates in value. The amount of people who have made a fortune through real estate appreciation probably outnumber by a factor of 10 to 1 the amount of people who made a fortune by business or a working career.
If I purchase shares in a company and then sit and do nothing, and the valuation increases by 10 times, then have I made money or not? I can sell the shares or I can mortgage the shares by borrowing against their value. Should that value increase be taxed?
If I purchase real estate and then sit and do nothing, and the valuation increases by 10 times, then have I made money or not? I can sell the real estate or I can mortgage it and borrow against its value. Should that value increase be taxed?
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What? Germany doesn't waive any taxes for small businesses
yes, they do https://finanzamt-bw.fv-bwl.de/,Lde/Startseite/Service/Was+i...
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This needs to be repeated more often. If I buy a house for $100k, and next year some idiot pays $1M for a very similar house three streets down, did I just magically make $900k? Should I be taxed on that gain immediately? Should I be forced to sell part of my property to cover it? What happens when that sale occurs at a much lower price, due to my need to liquidate, did that lower the prices of all the houses in the…
> did I just magically make $900k? Yes you did, because now you can mortgage your real estate for that value and live in luxury. This is how most people make a good living, not by working or investing.
So parent has mortgaged their 100k house for a million - now what? How do they get out of their obligation to repay the mortgage - that is, buy the house back again for at least a million - without incurring penalties?
If there weren't repercussions for defaulting on mortgage payments, anyone could just trick lenders into buying their house immediately.
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Capital gain is the profit made on the sale of a capital asset. There is no gain or loss until the asset is sold. Taxation is not deferred, it applies when the gain is made, i.e. upon sale.
This needs to be repeated more often. If I buy a house for $100k, and next year some idiot pays $1M for a very similar house three streets down, did I just magically make $900k? Should I be taxed on that gain immediately? Should I be forced to sell part of my property to cover it? What happens when that sale occurs at a much lower price, due to my need to liquidate, did that lower the prices of all the houses in the…
We take what the highest bidder is willing to pay, as well as what the lowest seller is willing to sell for. So it's a completely fair way of fixing the value. If you think the price is too high, then why aren't other sellers rushing to sell for the same? If you think the price is too low, then why aren't other buyers rushing to buy?
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You definitely need advice from professionals, yes. All included, I'd expect it to cost 5k€-30k€, but not more.
how did you do it? My co-founder is in a similar situation, and his tax-lawyer said the only way was via a trust - they also have a German holding. Do you have to declare that somewhere? or how does this work? Thanks!