The new asset declarations filed by parliament members and other officials show property at what it cost, not what it is worth today, which means the “net worth” figure at the bottom of each declaration can differ from the real figure by hundreds of thousands of euros in some cases.
Under the new law on asset declarations, known as ‘pothen esches’, assets and liabilities are listed at cost. Previous declarations gave both the value at the time of acquisition and the current value.
This is lawful, as the legislation provides for it. But because the declarations use the term “net worth” without making clear that it is based on cost, the figure can be confusing and lead to wrong conclusions. Comparing the same person’s declarations from 2024 and 2026 may also cause confusion, as the two years use different methods.
The issue comes on top of parliament’s publication of personal data in the declarations that should not have been made public.
How the gap arises
Property is now valued at its historical cost of purchase or construction rather than its current market value, and land acquired as a gift is shown at zero.
Take a parliament member who bought a property in 2010 for 100,000 euros, which is now worth 600,000 euros at market prices, and who also has 100,000 euros in deposits and an outstanding bank loan of 100,000 euros. Their actual net worth is 600,000 euros. But because the property is listed at its purchase price, the declaration would show a net worth of 100,000 euros, a difference of 500,000 euros.
The gap is widest for property bought many years ago whose market value has since risen sharply.
The reverse applies to assets that lose value over time, such as cars. A vehicle bought for 50,000 euros and now worth 15,000 euros may still be listed at its original price, showing more than it is worth today.
Gifted property
The gap can be even wider for property received as a gift, since the person who receives it pays nothing for it. In some of the declarations published under the new system, gifted property is listed at zero, or at a token amount such as 1 euro, in the “cost/amount” column.
That does not mean the property has no value, but it will never be counted in the person’s net worth. A gifted property worth 500,000 euros today, for example, appears at zero. Someone with several such properties could have a real net worth, at current market values, many times higher than the one their declaration shows.
Purpose of the system
The change can be justified by the purpose of asset declarations, which is not only to show what a person owns today but how and when they acquired it, and whether changes in their wealth can be explained.
If current values are not added back, one option would be to change the “net worth” label so that it does not give a misleading impression. Banks, when assessing a borrower’s financial position and net worth, take the estimated value of property into account.
