D The SPD seems to have done something right. She has one Inheritance tax reform proposal placed on the table to make inheritance easier and fairer. Small heirs should be relieved, large heirs should be burdened. Small means more like medium, because in the future up to 900,000 euros will remain privately tax-free – more than twice as much as currently. An additional 100,000 euros from non-family sources are added. And if you live in the house you inherited, you don’t have to pay a cent in taxes.
With the generous allowances, the Social Democrats want to take away the fear and expected fears of the majority of those affected Keep waves of outrage down. That’s smart. Taxes are initially unpopular because the state is always suspected of wanting to take away some of your hard-earned, earned or inherited money at every opportunity.
But wait. Inherited sourly? That’s where it starts. Inheriting means receiving something as a gift without having to lift a finger: unearned wealth. When it comes to heirs, the performance principle that the CDU/CSU parties and businesses like to promote is suspended. The liberal promise of being able to advance through talent, education and hard work is also undermined.
More super-rich live in Germany than in any other European country. The number of billionaires rose by a third to 156 in 2025 – worldwide only the USA, China and India have more super-rich. They were able to increase their wealth by almost $150 billion compared to the previous year, many of them through inheritance. If that richest one percent If more than a third of the population has net wealth, while the bottom half of the population has almost nothing, this is not conducive to democracy. Growing inequality is feeding one of the greatest evils of our time: the rise of the extreme right.
The SPD must remain the party of social justice – or it can fold
The SPD must remain the party of social justice – or it can fold. The Social Democrats would do well to make questions of justice their core focus again. Energy can be drawn from it, which is needed because questions of justice permeate society as a whole – whether in adapting to the climate crisis, in housing, in energy issues or in unreasonable demands caused by military conflicts.
That’s why the 5 million allowance for companies is a sensible approach, even if company transfers worth billions can no longer be downsized using “exemption requirements tests”. The “triumph of injustice” that the French inequality researchers Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman identified in the USA is not a law of nature. Inheritance tax reform is a good start to reducing inequality. This strengthens democracy. And research has long since shown that in less unequal societies, people are also happier.