An 87-year-old woman from Lemiers in Limburg who owned substantial real estate in nearby Vaals has left most of it to her tenants in her will.

According to the Telegraaf, Anneliese Houppermans, who earned her money from a successful fruit and vegetable business, owned several houses in the community. She never married or had children, and her ties to her family had faded over the years.

  • 👍Maximum Derek👍@discuss.tchncs.de
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    4 months ago

    At first (because I’m a rapidly evolving into my final curmudgeon form) this put me in mind of those families that ended up losing their house after appearing on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition because they could no longer afford the taxes and upkeep on their houses. But this line of the article helped put me at ease:

    “I only have to pay €75,000 in inheritance tax which I have turned into a mortgage. I have effectively been given €200,000, it’s great,” he said.

      • VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        It’s to try and combat generational wealth, maybe 100% with it going towards funding UBI would be better

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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        4 months ago

        Inheritance tax, in my opinion, is a very good thing. It prevents people from passing down wealth and keeps the playing field more even. Obviously nepotism and connections can’t be taxed, but it’s a step in the right direction. It’s not like they “deserved” that money or anything. I’m happy for them, but taxing it seems fine to help people with less.

      • Redredme@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Welcome to Holland, we’ve arranged good dikes, good infrastructure, social benefits and affordable healthcare for all.

        How do we pay for all of it?

        Yeah… You now know how. We pay a lot of tax. And I mean a lot. 17+ % VAT on everything. Cars have an extra tax called bpm of around 20%. So half the price of a car is tax. 1 litre (not a gallon!) of ron95? Over 2 euros. Etc. (because that’s not all)

        It’s fun.

        And thats why we are tall. Because if we weren’t we would drown in our taxes ;)

        • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Dutch people pay so much tax because dutch companies pay so little tax, so pretty much the entire burden of paying the costs of the State comes from the wallets of individuals (whilst companies too are owned by individuals, those rich enough have many ways of avoiding paying tax on that and a lot of the biggest owners of the companies making profits in The Netherlands - whilst paying little tax on said profits - aren’t even resident in The Netherlands).

          In countries were the tax take is more evenly balanced between people and businesses, people pay less taxes for more services (The Netherlands doesn’t even have a National Health Service, only a mixed Health Insurance system).

          I lived in The Netherlands over a decade ago and already back then the country already had Northern European levels of taxation with nowhere near the levels of Public Services that countries with similar individual taxation - such as the Scandinavians - had and I doubt a decade of right-wing neoliberals in government has made things any better.

          • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyz
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            4 months ago

            I doubt a decade of right-wing neoliberals in government has made things any better.

            Only thing they achieved was starting a housing crisis. But don’t worry, Rutte failed upwards to NATO chief.

      • Valmond@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        It should, IMO, be higher.

        Especially when it’s not your kids.

        People dont understand how much money like 200.000$ actually is.

        • HauntedCupcake@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          It should be lower for 200.000$ then slide up to 100% on anything above 1.000.000$ or so

          People inheriting 200.000$ aren’t causing the huge gap in wealth inequality

          • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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            4 months ago

            As I understand it, there’s several people getting houses. Exact figures aren’t given, but it’s likely she’s given away close to a million here.

          • Valmond@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Nah, 200k is almost half of what someone earns in a lifetime (and thats before taxes, food, rent…) but I guess there are a lot of temporary embarrassed millionaires out here :-)

            • HauntedCupcake@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              I get what you’re saying, and in my ideal world inheritance would be limited to personal effects with sentimental value. I just don’t think being more extreme is going to get us anywhere, and definitely has different moral concerns regarding high value items with sentimental value

      • Akasazh@feddit.nl
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        4 months ago

        If you’r enot relatives it’s a high percentage.

        First column is partners and children, second column is grandchidren and other relatives, last column is unrelated people

        € 0 - € 138.642 10% 18% 30%

        € 138.642+ 20% 36% 40%