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Price board at the gas station (archive image): high prices ensure high tax revenues
Photo: Julian Stratenschulte / dpa
The tax revenue of the federal and state governments increased even more in January: They climbed by 22.4 percent to 57.55 billion euros, as the Federal Ministry of Finance announced in the current monthly report.
In December 2021, the plus was still 19.5 percent.
An increase was also promised for 2022 as a whole, but without giving details.
Tax revenue increased by 11.5 percent last year.
There were significant increases in sales, wage and income taxes in January.
The countries were the main beneficiaries.
The income they are entitled to alone increased by 21.6 percent.
Pure federal taxes fell by 7.8 percent because the solidarity surcharge was eliminated for most payers.
"The increased tax revenue also has a downside," said the left finance politician Christian Görke.
"The state has made a lot of money from the exploding energy prices." In order to return the additional income from VAT, the traffic light coalition should, among other things, reduce the tax rate on fuel, gas, electricity and district heating from 19 percent to seven percent for at least six months .
"Relief from moon prices is the order of the day," said Görke.
The federal government wants to put together a relief package this week.
The Ministry of Finance is expecting stronger economic momentum from spring, after the economy had contracted by 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021 and only a muted, slightly positive development is expected in the first quarter of 2022.
In the summer months there will be more momentum in both industry and the service sector.
"The order books in the industry are very well filled, and if the supply bottlenecks continue to ease, this should provide noticeable impetus," says the monthly report.
"More dynamics can also be expected in services as soon as the pandemic situation eases again." The rates of increase in inflation should be lower over the course of the year.
mic/Reuters