[ad_1]
In the political fight to contain controversial real estate deals, the SPD member of the Bundestag Cansel Kiziltepe takes an unusual step: she informs the real estate company Akelius. Kiziltepe wants to release a corresponding report on Friday morning publicly and effectively at the Berlin tax investigation department. Kiziltepe accuses Akelius of a “questionable share agreement” with residential buildings in the Neukölln district.
With share offerings, investors avoid paying real estate transfer tax. This is unavoidable for most buyers when buying a house or apartment in Germany. The tax goes to the federal states, which received almost 16 billion euros last year at rates of between 3.5 and 6.5 percent.
In the case of share transactions, however, houses or land are not bought, but shares of companies that own the property. As long as a buyer purchases less than 95 percent of a business over five years, they do not have to pay real estate transfer tax. Therefore, many get a co-investor who only has a small stake. Meanwhile, the real estate transfer tax is a “stupid tax”, paid only by ordinary citizens.
Kiziltepe suspects that Akelius may have exceeded the limits of what is allowed in the store on Boddinstrasse in Neukölln. “The co-investor has to be independent,” he says. “And in this case it is not.” Rather, the CEOs of the Cypriot Giannis Beta Ltd. Active in various positions in the Akelius Group, including on the Board of Trustees of the Akelius Foundation in the Bahamas and on the board of directors of the Swedish parent company. Cypriots are also involved in parts of the Akelius group.
With more than 14,000 apartments, Akelius is one of the largest private real estate companies in Berlin. Founder Roger Akelius became known in his Swedish homeland as the author of a bestseller in which, according to the company’s website, he explains “what everyone can legally do to reduce their taxes.” Akelius was later “the first in the world to sell tax filing programs.” The company did not initially respond to an inquiry about the allegations.
Akelius took over 89.9 percent of the real estate company in Neukölln and Giannis Beta took 10.1 percent. With this, investors are apparently already preparing for a planned property transfer tax reform. It would lower the participation threshold from 95 percent to 90 percent and, among other things, extend the holding period from five to ten years. The reform is agreed in the coalition agreement, with the expected additional income, the federal states should lower their tax rates.
The reform is delayed
But although a bill has been around for a long time, the grand coalition has yet to agree on it. Kiziltepe accuses the Union of blocking the project. With your announcement you now want to draw attention to the faltering reform plans. In reality, your group is in favor of lowering the threshold to 75 percent. “But there are also important improvements such as the extension of the holding period.”
By one estimate, the state loses about a billion euros in taxes each year through stock deals. With the sale of the Sony Center in Berlin alone, which went to a Canadian pension fund for around € 1.1 billion in 2017, the tax authorities could have received € 66 million in property transfer taxes without the loophole.
In the case of the house in Neukölln, the losses are likely to be significantly lower, but Kiziltepe is also concerned with the principle: “It cannot be that all normal people pay this tax and large investors avoid it.”
