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Omid Nouripour, Olaf Scholz, Christian Lindner and Saskia Esken at the press conference on the coalition committee's decision
Photo: TOBIAS SCHWARZ / AFP
»Germany stands together«: This is the motto of the third billion-dollar relief package that the traffic light leaders agreed on after almost 19 hours of negotiations.
At the press conference in the morning, Chancellor Olaf Scholz promised: "We will not leave anyone alone." The coalition plans to fulfill this promise with these measures:
energy costs
The partial
skimming off of excess profits
(»random profits« it says in the paper) from electricity providers is intended to relieve consumers.
A European solution should first be found here.
If this cannot be implemented promptly, “the federal government will implement these adjustments in the electricity market design itself to relieve consumers”.
By skimming off these profits, an
electricity price brake
is then to be financed.
"Private households can be credited with a certain amount of electricity at a discounted price (basic consumption)," it says.
In addition, the “redispatch costs”, which will rise sharply in mid-October, are to be subsidised.
Redispatch costs are incurred for network and system security measures in the power grid.
So far, the costs for this have been passed on to the electricity price.
The increase in the CO2 price by five euros per tonne planned for January 1 has been postponed by one year to 2024.
Relief for employees
In order to counter the "increased prices and the associated real loss of income" for employees, the federal government is planning
a tax- and duty-free amount of up to 3,000 euros
for special payments from employers.
These bonus payments would therefore be
net and gross for employees.
In order to prevent an effective tax increase due to inflation (
cold progression
), the key values in the income tax rate are to be adjusted as of January 1, 2023.
Relief for pensioners
Retirees will receive a
one-time energy price lump sum of 300 euros on December 1st.
The payment is to be made via the German pension insurance.
One-off payment for students and technical students
All students and technical students receive
a one-time payment of 200 euros.
child support
Child benefit will be increased by 18 euros
for the first and second child on January 1st
.
The
child allowance
for low-income families will be increased again on January 1, 2023 and raised to
250 euros per
month.
Introduction of citizen money
In the case of the citizen's income introduced on January 1, 2023, the »regulation requirement-relevant inflation« should be included in any adjustments.
According to the paper, this leads to an "increase step to around 500 euros".
Reside
At the beginning of the new year, the
housing allowance is to be reformed
and the group of beneficiaries expanded to two million citizens.
As a short-term measure, there is to be
a one-off heating cost
subsidy for recipients of housing benefit for the period from September to December 2022.
This should be
415 euros
for a household with one person,
540
for a household with two people and
100 euros for each additional
person living in the household.
Tenants who are “financially overwhelmed in the short term” due to increased advance payments for operating costs should be “appropriately protected”.
Electricity and gas cutoffs should also be avoided if consumers are unable to pay the costs despite »using all support services«.
Successor to the 9-euro ticket
The traffic light wants to create a
new nationwide public transport
ticket.
The aim is a price range between
49 and 69 euros
per month.
The federal states still have to agree to the financing.
Extended short-time allowance
The special regulations for short-time work benefits will be extended beyond September 30, 2022.
Tax cuts for gas and gastro
The
reduction in sales tax
for food in the catering trade to 7 percent will be extended.
Sales
tax on gas consumption
will be reduced from 19 to 7 percent.
The measure is limited in time until the end of March 2024.
National Minimum Taxation
The federal government will already start implementing the internationally agreed global minimum taxation at national level.
Abolition of double taxation
Taxpayers should be able to fully deduct their pension contributions two years earlier than planned, i.e. from January 1, 2023.
In the future, pensions will be taxed in the payment phase in old age.
As compensation, the expenses for old-age provision can be claimed for tax purposes during employment.
Raising the limit on midi jobs
The maximum limit for employment in a midi job is now
to be raised to 2000 euros instead of the planned 1600 euros.
According to the paper, by January 2023 employees will be relieved “because they pay significantly less contributions to their social security”.
Extension and improvement of the home office flat rate
The home office flat rate will be extended and increased.
An advertising cost deduction of 5 euros per home office day, up to a maximum of
600 euros per year
, is possible.
corporate aids
A program for “energy-intensive companies” that cannot pass on increased energy costs is to be launched.
Companies should be supported when investing in efficiency measures.
In this way, the economy could become independent of Russian gas.
Existing aid programs for companies will be extended until the end of the year.
In addition, other companies should be able to participate in these programs by easing the conditions.
In order to support energy-intensive companies in view of the high prices, the so-called peak compensation for electricity and energy taxes will be extended by another year.
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