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Power poles around the RWE coal-fired power plant in Niederaußem (symbolic image)
Photo: IMAGO/Christoph Hardt / IMAGO/Panama Pictures
According to the newspaper Die Welt, the Federal Ministry of Finance apparently wants to impose a tax rate of 33 percent on excess profits made by energy companies.
The “Welt” refers to a formulation aid for the 2022 annual tax law. All corporations active in the oil, gas, coal and refinery sectors would have to “tax extra tax on profits from 2022 and 2023 that are more than 20 percent above the average profit for 2018 to 2018 2021 lies«.
The SPD's financial policy spokesman, Michael Schrodi, confirmed on Twitter that the government had drafted a proposal that would skim off excess profits from oil, gas and coal companies.
The so-called energy crisis contribution is based on the requirements of an EU regulation and has been implemented as a tax within the meaning of the tax code.
Schrodi did not give any details.
"It's good when corporations with excess profits are involved in crisis management," he commented.
The traffic light coalition announced in September that it wanted to finance the electricity price brake for citizens by skimming off excessive profits from some energy companies.
At the time, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) spoke of "accidental profits" that companies would make due to the high energy prices.
Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) had already referred to the EU Commission's proposals for an excess profit tax and an electricity price brake when making the announcement.
The Council in Brussels passed a corresponding regulation in October, which must be implemented by the end of the year.
Tax rate -- and revenue -- towards the lower end of the range
In September, Lindner estimated the possible income from the tax at a two-digit billion amount.
According to the "Welt", the federal government's additional income from the excess profit tax on coal, oil and gas in 2022 and 2023 should amount to one to three billion euros.
The formulation aid is based on this.
In addition, there would be a double-digit billion amount from the excess profit tax for electricity.
Originally, experts had even promised income of around 100 billion euros - albeit with taxation of excess profits at 90 percent.
(Read how much different tax rates would bring in the state here and more about how other states do it here.) So the tax rate of 33 percent would remain at the lower end of the possible range.
According to the "Welt" report, criticism of this comes from the Greens: The draft of the Ministry of Finance falls "well short of what is necessary," said financial policy spokeswoman Katharina Beck of the newspaper.
"The EU regulation clearly only describes 33 percent as a minimum rate." A higher rate is possible.
kko/Reuters/AFP
