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Tax assessment notice from 2015: will the solos appear again soon for everyone?
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Roland Weihrauch/ dpa
Around 90 percent of Germans have not paid a solidarity surcharge since last year.
But from the point of view of the German Tax Union (DstG), such an extra tax should soon be introduced again on a large scale.
"The financial burden on the federal government is increasing rapidly every day due to all the crises," said union chairman Thomas Eigenthaler of the "Stuttgarter Zeitung" and the "Stuttgarter Nachrichten".
From his point of view, these costs “cannot be borne without a solidarity update”.
The soli has been levied since 1995 to cover the costs of German unity, most recently it was 5.5 percent of income and corporation tax.
The surcharge was abolished for around 90 percent of citizens at the beginning of 2021.
About ten percent of taxpayers still have to pay it.
The soli on very high incomes will remain unchanged.
About 6.5 percent only have to pay part of it.
Will soon 80 percent pay solos again?
In the end, politicians will not be able to keep up with the fact that only a few taxpayers provide additional financial solidarity, said Eigenthaler.
The head of the professional association of tax officials therefore predicts that the federal government "will sooner or later ask around 80 percent of taxpayers to pay again".
Moritz Kraemer, chief economist at Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW), also campaigned for the reintroduction of the solidarity surcharge.
Most recently, after German reunification, the country had such "Herculean tasks" ahead of it, Kraemer told the dpa news agency, referring to the Ukraine war and climate change.
The FDP, on the other hand, does not want to talk about a new edition of the solo.
FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr replied that he did not believe in tax increase debates.
mmq/dpa