This paper seeks to analyse the state of play before and after the 1994 Commission Recommendation on business transfers in some EU member States such as Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Finland where these exemptions are currently being called into question. It also looks at Italy, Portugal and Sweden, which have taken a different approach to the business transfer topic.

The situation in the United Kingdom has been assessed in this paper because, while they are no longer members of the EU, they were at the time the 1994 when the Recommendation was published and now they have recently proposed changes to their business property relief which will impact family businesses.