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Who can really turn on energy consumption - and should therefore feel the price of CO2 the most?
Photo: Marcus Brandt / dpa
The federal government wants to introduce cost sharing for the climate tax for residential buildings, which should relieve millions of tenants in the coming year.
According to the government, the ministries for construction, economy and justice agreed on the last details of the draft law, which is to pass the cabinet on Wednesday.
As a result, from 2023 landlords will contribute to the costs of the carbon dioxide tax that has been levied on heating oil and natural gas since 2021.
According to a graduated plan, they bear 90 to zero percent of the costs, depending on how energy-efficient their house is.
This should be an incentive to replace old heaters or windows.
The stage model covers over 13 million apartments.
In the case of commercial real estate, tenants and landlords should initially each bear half of the CO2 costs.
So far, tenants have shouldered the CO2 tax.
The tenants’ association had put the CO2 costs for a model household in an unrenovated apartment at 130 euros for gas heating and 190 euros for oil heating in 2022.
In the coalition agreement, the SPD, Greens and FDP had announced that costs would be shared from July 2022.
In the coalition, the six-month delay was justified by the fact that the billing periods for heating costs usually start anew at the beginning of the year.
In view of the drastically increased energy prices as a result of the Russian attack on Ukraine, the GdW central association of the housing industry called for the CO2 tax to be suspended for one year.
In view of the high energy prices, the levy could no longer achieve any significant steering effect.
beb/Reuters