Half-division principle

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The principle of half division has two meanings in German law :

Family law

In German family law , it is a principle that determines the legal consequences of separation and divorce between spouses.

When determining the amount of the separation maintenance and the post-marital maintenance , each of the spouses should initially have half of the joint income that characterizes the marital living conditions. The pure net income is not taken into account; rather, it is usually adjusted for work-related expenses, other maintenance burdens that affect the marital living conditions and other liabilities, as well as an incentive for earners (so-called employment bonus or incentive seventh). If a spouse cannot cover his or her needs determined according to the principle of half-division with his own income, he is entitled to a maintenance claim against the other spouse under additional conditions . For its part, the obliged entity must regularly have half of the aggregated adjusted income.

The half-division principle also determines the equalization of marital gains , the pension equalization and the division of household items - the term principle already suggests that exceptions are quite possible.

Tax law

On the principle of half-division in German tax law , which the Federal Constitutional Court had derived from Article 14, Paragraph 2 of the Basic Law , cf. the entry to the property. According to a decision by the Federal Constitutional Court, there is no absolute upper limit for income tax and trade tax in the vicinity of a half division. The court thus confirmed a decision by the Federal Fiscal Court, which rejected the application of the principle of half-division to income tax and considered a tax burden of around 60% through income and trade tax to be constitutional .

Individual evidence

  1. BVerfG, decision of June 22, 1995 - 2 BvL 37/91
  2. BVerfG, decision of January 18, 2006 - 2 BvR 2194/99 ( Memento of August 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  3. BVerfG, Neue Juristische Wochenschrift (NJW) 2006, p. 1191; see. Oliver Sauer, Farewell to the principle of partial division , Forum Recht 2006, p. 131 ( online ).
  4. BFH judgment of August 11, 1999 - XI R 77/97, ​​BStBl. 1999 II p. 771