Government dives on residual solos

um the solidarity surcharge it has become quiet. There is a reason for this: since the partial abolition that came into force at the beginning of last year, most employees have had nothing to do with it – apart from their investment income. In times of zero interest rates, not that much comes together. Very few taxpayers therefore continue to have to pay the full 5.5 percent contribution to the tax liability. To ensure that the top earners do not benefit from the abolition of the soli, an exemption limit was introduced. A sliding zone also prevents radical access by the tax authorities at the decisive edge in the tariff, which would have led to a small additional income even leading to a lower net. The sliding zone has its price, there are extremely high marginal charges for income that is not intended for it.

This blemish should not obscure the fundamental question: is it permissible to discriminate against a small group at all and only continue to burden them with the special tax introduced to finance German unity because their members earn very well? Many tax lawyers take a critical view of this. The department head responsible left the Federal Ministry of Finance for this reason. Since then, Michael Sell has preferred to argue with the taxpayers’ association against the remaining solos, which still bring the state 11 billion euros. Leading FDP politicians have also appealed to the Federal Constitutional Court against the tax surcharge: Florian Toncar and Christian Durr. The aid for East Germany had expired and the reason for the supplementary levy no longer applied, they argued. Today, the first is Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and part of the federal government. The second is now FDP parliamentary group leader, a key figure in the power structure of the traffic light. However, they have not withdrawn the lawsuit.

Judges in red robes administer tax policy

The matter is tricky: FDP against FDP, Toncar and Dürr against the Minister of Finance, who Christian Lindner is called and is their party leader. He also used to want to abolish the solos, but now he has to campaign for the receipt of the remaining surcharge. This absurd constellation is no coincidence: the SPD, Greens and FDP have not been able to agree on a course of action. They left the solos out of the coalition agreement and left the decision to the Federal Constitutional Court.

This is the continuation of an unfortunate development. Over the years and decades, the red-robed judges have become an important, if not the most important, driver in the world tax policy become. When you look back, what groundbreaking decisions do you not find: the introduction of spouse splitting, a significant expansion of the basic tax allowance, an expansion of the child tax allowance, but also the end of wealth tax, the control of capital gains, the reform of inheritance tax – the impetus always came from Karlsruhe. The new pension taxation, the change in property tax and the lower interest on back taxes and tax refunds are also due to their specifications.