Gift/inheritance tax - can it be avoided if money is transfered temporarily?

[sesquiterpene]

Dear all,

I am an expat living in Germany. My family back in my home country is considering moving some money to a new account (on their name) in Germany due to security concerns back in my home country. Opening the account will take a while because they need to identify themselves when in Germany.

Ideally they would transfer the money to me for temporary custody already now, and I will transfer it back to their German account once it's open. The problem is that it would make no sense to pay the gift/inheritance tax when it's just a temporary parking of the money in my account.

Does anyone know if the finanzamt would have any tolerance to such an arrangement? Or will they demand their share?

Thanks!

[Fraufruit]

How do you know that they can open an account in Germany? Ask anyone from the U.S.. It is almost impossible.

Even so, why do they need to send the money before the account is open so that they can transfer it directly?

[sesquiterpene]

Several banks have it in their FAQs that you can open an account without a Wohnsitz in DE. They'd like to transfer asap because things are very unstable and they feel safer, justified or not....

[Alberto]

Sorry, not answering the question.

Opening an account in a country while nit even living there is a little strange, but not super strange.
I opened my UK account while not living there, slightly complicated but not too bad.
More often than not the banks require either high income, or a large sum, or they charge some regular fee.

[Fraufruit]

Several banks have it in their FAQs that you can open an account without a Wohnsitz in DE. They'd like to transfer asap because things are very unstable and they feel safer, justified or not....

Thanks. Now I understand. Sorry, I also can't help but good luck finding a solution.

[pappnase]

Regarding the avoidance of Gift/inheritance tax, surely if your parents loan you the money, then it isn't a gift or an inheritance and so isn't subject to tax.
You can repay the loan when they have an account to receive it.

I'm neither a lawyer nor a tax advisor so I can't be sure that this will work, or advise you on how to achieve it, but if this is the reality of the situation and not some tax-dodge, I don't see any reason why you couldn't do it.

[sesquiterpene]

Thanks! I'd imagine that this should be the case, but also potentially a potential loophole they might want to just bluntly seal to avoid shenanigans: one could take a loan from their parents and "fail" to repay it until they are gone, never paying the gift tax.

Loan is a good keyword. I'll try to follow up on it.

[Nixon]

Not answering your question but trying to highlight one other restriction, possible red flag.

If you are talking about more than 10K being transferred from an account that is not your personal one, pretty much any bank will ask for clarifications, do possible freeze or something along those lines.
Reason: possible money laundering.