Enlarge image
Armin Laschet in the ARD summer interview: »No tax relief at the moment«
Photo: CLEMENS BILAN / EPA
SPD general secretary Lars Klingbeil accuses the CDU chairman Armin Laschet of wanting to conceal his real intentions in tax policy.
"Armin Laschet is messing around," criticized Klingbeil in SPIEGEL, "he can do that best, be it with the Personalie Maassen or the tax concept of the Union."
The Union's candidate for chancellor had moved away from his previous tax plans in the ARD summer interview on Sunday and had dampened expectations of early tax relief.
"The basic message is: no tax relief at the moment," said Laschet, "we don't have the money."
In the drafts of its election manifesto, the Union had promised significant tax relief for companies and employees.
In the approved version, these have already been slimmed down and made subject to financing.
Klingbeil interprets Laschet's turnaround as an attempt to "cover up" what the CDU financial expert Friedrich Merz wrote in his program.
The candidate for chancellor claims that the Union does not want any tax increases or reductions.
“That's not true,” said Klingbeil, “the Union wants to abolish solos for top earners too.
The Union is not planning anything for the educator, the carer or others with low and middle incomes.
Merz defends Laschet
The contradictions between the candidate, the program and the actions of the Bundestag faction of the CDU and CSU increased, criticized the SPD General Secretary.
"The constant cheating of Laschet has a system in this election campaign."
On the other hand, Laschet received backing from Merz himself in the morning. "We want to lower it as soon as possible, but that's not possible at the moment due to the high burden, especially on the federal budget, from the Corona measures," he said on Deutschlandfunk.
The abolition of the solidarity surcharge, on the other hand, was long overdue anyway, said Merz: “This surcharge was earmarked.
This purpose has been fulfilled and that is why this surcharge should have been abolished entirely and not only partially. «That would then also relieve the partnerships, which are charged after income tax.
kvh
