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Inner city of Hanover: The so-called bridging aid III is to help the trade in January
Photo: Ole Spata / DPA
From this Wednesday on, Germany will shut down, at least until January 10th - this is how the federal and state governments decided on Sunday.
Schools and daycare centers will either be closed or there will be no compulsory attendance, alcohol consumption in public will be prohibited, and on New Year's Eve there will be a ban on gathering in certain places.
Above all, however, all shops that do not cover daily needs have to close their doors again.
The heads of government have long shied away from this step - also because the damage to the retail sector is immense, especially in the remaining days up to Christmas.
The federal government, above all Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) have already promised additional support.
The money should also counteract the discontent in the population.
This means that the system of state corona aid is slowly becoming confusing.
Because, in addition to the soon-to-be-added aid, there is a whole range of currently existing programs and special rules, while others have already expired - such as the spring emergency aid.
So what aid is currently available, in what amount and for whom?
An overview:
November and December help
It is available for
companies
that have had to
close
in a slight lockdown
since the beginning of November,
such as restaurants, gyms or cinemas.
They are also available for companies that are
indirectly
or
through third parties
affected by the closings
with at least 80 percent of their sales
, such as a laundry that makes four fifths or more of its sales with hotels.
These companies receive grants equal to
75 percent of the sales
they made in November and December 2019, respectively.
Self-employed people
can also apply for assistance for November without a tax advisor - but only up to an amount
of 5000 euros
.
Alternatively, you can also use the average monthly turnover for 2019 as a basis, because their income is often irregular.
The problem: The money comes in very late, from mid-January at the earliest - because the software for it is not yet ready.
In order to alleviate the worst need, there are already
advance payments
of 50 percent of the requested amount, the
maximum amount of which was
recently increased significantly, to
50,000 euros per month
(previously it was only 10,000 euros).
The
retail sector
, which is now affected by the tightened shutdown, is
excluded
from the usual November and December
aid - the federal government has promised its own relief for it, but this has not yet been worked out (see below).
Special shutdown help for retail
What the special aids for the retail trade, which will be closed from Wednesday, will look like has not yet been finalized.
Finance Minister Olaf Scholz provided a clue about the total amount, who spoke of 11.2 billion euros per month as state support for companies affected by the hard shutdown - which should mainly belong to the retail sector.
One thing is already clear: retailers will have the option of obtaining
Bridging Aid III
, which will actually only apply from January, under
simplified conditions for the months of November and December 2020.
To do this, their sales in one of the two months or in both months together must be at least 40 percent below the respective period 2019.
The decision paper of the federal and state governments also contains measures that are primarily intended to help retailers.
There it says that the
loss of value of goods
and other assets
associated with the closing
orders
should be absorbed by making
partial
write-offs possible quickly and unbureaucratically.
Goods to be inventoried could be booked out.
This means that unsold goods can be written off immediately.
Extra paid leave for parents
For parents who have a childcare problem due to the closure of daycare centers and schools and cannot go to work, the federal and state governments decided on Sunday that "
additional opportunities are
created
to take
paid leave
to look
after their children during the period mentioned
" .
This could be necessary for many parents, as they have already taken their entire annual vacation due to the closings in the first shutdown.
However, it is still unclear what exactly this should look like.
The Ministry of Labor and Finance also pointed out on Monday that the details were still being worked on.
Regardless
of the announced extra solution, there is already an applicable regulation in the Infection Protection Act: compensation for loss of
earnings
.
It provides for continued
wages of 67 percent
, but
a maximum of 2016 euros
per month if the health department quarantines children or if schools and daycare centers are officially closed - and no other care options can be found.
The money is paid out by the employer, who then applies for and receives compensation from the local authority.
However, the regulation is limited to children up to the age of twelve or with disabilities.
And it basically does not apply to the cases in which the schools do not close, but only the compulsory attendance is lifted.
Simplified access in Hartz IV
In order to better protect small self-employed persons in particular, the rules for Hartz IV were significantly relaxed at the beginning of the corona crisis:
The limit of
personal assets
has been raised significantly: to
60,000 euros for the applicant
and
30,000 euros for each additional person
in the household.
In addition
, for
each year of self-employment,
another
8,000 euros in assets may
have been saved
for retirement provision
.
The
cost of the apartment
- usually the rent - are
paid
in full
, regardless of how high the rent and how big the apartment is.
The usual limits of appropriateness are therefore exposed.
These regulations have already been extended several times with the continuation of the pandemic.
They are currently still valid for approvals that take place until the end of March 2021 - as approval is granted for six months, i.e. until the end of September at the most.
Short-time allowance
In the corona crisis, almost six million employees were on short-time work, until the slight shutdown in November the number fell to a good two million.
This social benefit was changed in several points, in favor of employees and employers:
Increase depending on the reference time
Applies to employees who reduce their working hours by
at least 50 percent
: In the
first three months
, the short-time allowance amounts to
60 percent of
the lost regular net wage, from the fourth month to
70 percent
and
from the seventh month to 80 percent
.
For employees
with children
, there
is seven percent more of
the failed regular net wage.
Longer benefits
The
maximum possible duration
of short-time work has been extended
from 12 to 24 months
- however
, the extended reference period only applies until December 31, 2021
.
This means that only employees who were on short-time work from January 2020 can achieve the extended maximum duration.
So whoever goes on short-time work in the course of 2021 can - as of now - only receive it for the regular 12 months.
More additional earnings possible
Short-time workers can
supplement
the short-time work benefit with a
sideline
job.
Up to the amount of your original regular income
, the income from this will
not
be taken into account in the corona crisis
.
Full reimbursement of social
security contributions
This regulation helps employers: Instead
of having to pay
half of the
social security contributions
of short-time workers
as usual
, the Federal Employment Agency (BA) has taken on these
in full
since the beginning of the crisis
.
From mid-2021, however, this relief will be tied to the condition of qualifying the short-time workers.
Easier access In
contrast to normal times,
temporary workers
can
also take
short-time work.
In addition,
instead of a third, only a tenth of
a company's
employees have to be
affected by lost work time.
Bridging aid III (January to June 2021)
It consists of a
reimbursement of fixed costs
for the self-employed and
companies
with an
annual turnover of up to 500 million euros
.
The prerequisite is a decline in sales of at least 50 percent in two consecutive months or of at least 30 percent in the period from April to December 2020 compared to the respective period before the pandemic.
The amount depends on this loss of sales:
If sales are lost by more than 70 percent: 90 percent of the fixed costs are reimbursed
in the event of a 50 to 70 percent loss of sales: reimbursement of 60 percent of the fixed costs
in the event of a 30 to 50 percent loss of sales: reimbursement of 40 percent of the fixed costs
The
monthly maximum
is now to be
increased
to
500,000 euros
(previously a maximum of 200,000 euros was planned).
For companies affected by the closure, there should be
advance payments
similar to the November and December aid.
Self-employed people with no or only low fixed costs
are to
receive
a so-called
restart
aid
for the period from December to June 2021
- in the amount of
25 percent of their sales in the first half of 2019
, but
a maximum of 5000 euros
.
It should not be counted towards Hartz IV.
Bridging aid II (September to December 2020)
It also consists of a reimbursement of fixed costs for small and medium-sized companies - in the case with an
annual turnover of less than 50 million euros or fewer than 250 employees.
The amount depending on the loss of sales corresponds to that in bridging aid III.
However, the
monthly maximum amount of
the reimbursement is significantly lower:
50,000 euros
.
Help for larger and large companies
A number of other aids are available, mainly for large medium-sized companies and corporations:
Loans
The federal government grants
loans
through its promotional bank KfW and assumes a large part of the liability risk.
By Tuesday last week,
45.7 billion euros
in loans had been granted
through the KfW special program
.
Guarantees and participations
The
federal government can use
the specially set up
economic
stabilization fund to rescue large companies in distress - specifically through guarantees for loans or through direct participation.
The most prominent example is Lufthansa, a good fifth of which is now owned by the German state.
The fund has a
total volume of 600 billion euros
;
6.5 billion euros of
this
has been used so far
.
Guarantees
For investments and working capital, companies can also apply for guarantees from the federal and state governments.
So far, they total a little
more than four billion euros
.
Tax measures In
addition to the temporary reduction in VAT, which benefited both businesses and consumers, deferrals and the adjustment of advance payments were made easier.
The carry-back of
losses
plays a special role
: Losses in the pandemic years 2020 and 2021 can thus be offset against profits from previous years.
So far, this carry-back is limited to five or ten million euros.
Business associations are calling for this limit to be raised significantly.
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