by Stefan Rullkötter, Euro on Sunday
It’s a constant annoyance for me: If I want to offset my realized share losses against other capital income such as dividends and interest, I’m prevented from doing so under the current legal situation. Exchange rate losses from forward transactions can currently only be offset up to an amount of EUR 20,000 per year. I can only carry forward misery that has not been taken into account to subsequent years. Certificates and warrants are exempt from this, but not CFDs, swaps, forwards, futures and foreign exchange transactions. Could this change soon?
€uro on Sunday: The limitations on the offsetting of losses in share and futures transactions, which many tax experts do not believe are practicable, are actually to be reformed. This is what the draft of a “future financing law” envisages, an initiative of the federal finance and justice ministries, both of which are headed by FDP politicians. Specifically, the so-called “separate loss accounting group” for shares is to be abolished. Realized losses could then be offset against all capital gains, not just realized gains on stock trades. According to this draft law, the separate clearing groups for misery from futures transactions and total losses should also soon be a thing of the past.
It is questionable whether the SPD, as the largest coalition partner of the traffic light government, will go along with the planned “substantial simplification of the withholding tax”: the additional offsetting restrictions for total losses and forward transactions were introduced in 2019 at the instigation of the then Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz. Hidden in a law on reporting obligations for cross-border tax arrangements, he pushed through tightening that was only marginally corrected a year later.
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Image sources: Daniela Staerk / Shutterstock.com, Gunnar Pippel / Shutterstock.com
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