CDU's tax relief plan favors Germany's top earners over average households
A tax relief proposal for income tax put forward by CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann would result in state revenue losses amounting to billions, experts warn. "The plan would translate to annual tax cuts totaling nine billion euros," DIW tax specialist Stefan Bach told Die Welt in its Tuesday edition.
According to calculations by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), the potential tax savings from raising the threshold for the top income tax rate to an annual taxable income of €80,000—as Linnemann proposed over the weekend—could reach up to €1,000 for single taxpayers and up to €2,000 for couples.
However, only households in the top 10% of earners would benefit to that extent. Singles earning an average income would see just €92 in annual relief, while families with two children and an average income would gain around €160. "To make the reform revenue-neutral, the top tax rate would have to be increased to 47 percent," Bach explained. Under that scenario, the 47% rate would kick in at a taxable income of €97,200.
Read also:
- American teenagers taking up farming roles previously filled by immigrants, a concept revisited from 1965's labor market shift.
- Weekly affairs in the German Federal Parliament (Bundestag)
- Landslide claims seven lives, injures six individuals while they work to restore a water channel in the northern region of Pakistan
- Escalating conflict in Sudan has prompted the United Nations to announce a critical gender crisis, highlighting the disproportionate impact of the ongoing violence on women and girls.
