30 billion euros relief? Christian Lindner’s tax fraud
Christian Lindner adorns himself with foreign laurels, says WELT editor Frank Stocker
Source: picture alliance / Geisler-Fotopress; Claudius plow
There are big words from Christian Lindner: The Finance Minister promises 30 billion euros tax relief by 2025. The maneuver is all too transparent – and shows one thing above all: The FDP chairman is in a dilemma.
BUnfinance minister Christian Lindner wants to relieve citizens and companies by more than 30 billion euros in this legislative period, as he told BILD am SONNTAG. In addition, from 2023 the contributions to the pension insurance would be fully tax deductible and the EEG surcharge on the electricity price would be abolished.
However, these plans have already been laid down in the coalition agreement, so Lindner has only put a price tag on it. But these traffic light plans are not even their own. The EEG surcharge has already been reduced by more than 40 percent for this year by the old government, and the full deductibility of pension contributions was a requirement of the Federal Fiscal Court in a ruling from the summer. Olaf Scholz had already initiated the implementation as finance minister. The traffic light now only implements this a little faster. That is praiseworthy, but not a great achievement.
In addition, the sum of 30 billion euros is distributed over the entire legislative period, making 7.5 billion euros per year. With income from taxes and social security contributions of around 1.5 trillion euros per year, this results in a relief of just half a percent – which is then even outweighed by the increasing CO2-Price as well as higher contributions to health insurance and soon also to pension insurance.
Homeopathic Reliefs
There are smoke candles that Lindner is throwing around here. He wants to give the impression that he, the FDP chairman, is implementing what his party has been advocating with so much vehemence for years: tax cuts. But these homeopathic reliefs, which are booked back elsewhere, do not deserve the label.
Lindner has to realize that he is finance minister of a traffic light coalition, not a black and yellow one. There will be no real tax cuts with the SPD and the Greens, and he should stop faking it. As finance minister, he may be the secret emperor of the traffic lights, but he’s naked.
And he would probably also be in a black-yellow coalition. Climate change, a pandemic, an aging society – all of this makes extensive tax cuts difficult for years to come. Especially since nobody wants to dare to make real savings, not even Lindner. The only example where the state could save was the government terminal at Berlin Airport. That costs 50 million euros and certainly does not save the state finances.
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