Citizens' preferences for a tax exemption for caregiving heirs: An empirical analysis

We analyze survey data on the proposal to introduce a tax exemption for caregiving heirs to the German inheritance tax. Some 80 percent of the participants support this exemption, about half of those supporting the tax exemption want to see it restricted to relatives. We explain interpersonal differences in policy preferences using a wide range of personal characteristics, beliefs and attitudes. Neither subjects’ sex, nor their valuation of the family is found to have an effect while personal experience in long- term care provision and having alive parents strongly shape policy preferences. Subjects with alive parents and/or personal experience in long-term care provision are more likely to support the tax exemption but less likely to support the restriction to relatives. This result supports the bottom line of the recent social science literature on home care provision and intergenerational relations within the family: Many citizens in Germany feel overburdened with caregiving.