On 24 October, the German coalition government issued a joint press release stating that the proposed reforms to the German Real Estate Transfer Tax (RETT) Act will be delayed to the first half of 2020. The coalition government has announced that they require more time to further consider the necessary changes following arguments brought forward by the leading associations of the German real estate industry at a public consultation on 14 October 2019.
Nevertheless, the coalition still intends to limit the existing RETT avoidance opportunities available through share deal structures and commits to finding solutions that will ensure effective and legally consistent new legislation in the first half of 2020 in line with the coalition agreement.
