Finance Minister Christian Lindner is planning tax cuts in order to relieve Germany’s citizens of inflation. Calculations now show that these would primarily help top earners. People with a lower income, on the other hand, would only benefit to a very limited extent.
The tax cuts planned by Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) could benefit top earners the most, even though they suffer the least from inflation. This emerges from invoices from the Bremen Chamber of Employees, which are available to the Süddeutsche Zeitung. If Lindner shifts all basic tariff values by six percent, that brings a single person with a gross income of 100,000 euros 600 euros. If he earns six times as much, he saves 1100 euros in taxes. A childless couple with this salary even waving 1700 euros relief.
In contrast, a family of four with an income of EUR 40,000 would only be relieved by EUR 300, and a single parent with half the salary by EUR 100. According to various studies, low- and middle-income earners are more affected by inflation because food and energy make up a larger part of their spending.
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Lindner has announced the reduction of cold tax progression for 2023 without going into detail so far. According to further calculations, direct payments would be far more socially balanced than tax cuts. Around 90 percent of the population benefit more from a direct payment of 600 euros than from reducing cold progression. This is only more lucrative for a family with two children who earn over 130,000 euros a year.
“We need further relief packages,” said SPD member of the Bundestag Michael Schrodi. “But we have to help those who need it most. 600 euros bring a low earner more directly than a high earner.” “A general tax cut would primarily benefit higher earners and would relieve them more than people with low incomes,” says study author Tobias Peters.
