Energy flat rate: 10 questions and answers about extra money

Created: 08/10/2022 05:49

By: Andreas Hoess

In September, many Germans receive an energy price flat rate of 300 euros gross.

The most important questions and answers about the money from the relief package.

Munich – 300 euros for free!

The energy price flat rate called EPP is intended to absorb part of the enormously increased energy costs.

But retirees only get the money if they have additional income anyway, and many people in need don't get it at all.

Other details of the EPP also require explanation.

1. Who gets the energy flat rate?

It is intended for all people who have higher costs for commuting to work due to increased energy prices.

For example, the Treasury Department lists blue-collar, salaried, apprentice, civil servant, part-time, farm labor, paid interns, and those currently doing voluntary service as eligible.

Basically, everyone who works and receives wages for it can look forward to the energy money, which is usually transferred in September with the salary.

Anyone who lives in Germany and commutes to work in Austria, for example, is also eligible for the subsidy.

In marriages and families, all employed persons in the household receive the money.

2. What happens if you're not working right now?

Even if September 1st is the registration date for the subsidy, it does not matter whether you are in an employment relationship on this exact day or not.

It is enough to work or have worked sometime in 2022.

A minimum duration of employment is also not required.

Seasonal workers are also entitled to the money.

3. What about freelancers and the self-employed?

They are also entitled to the flat rate.

But they don't get the money transferred.

Your EPP will be paid out on your next tax return.

4. Do pensioners also get the flat rate?

Normally, pensioners do not receive an EPP.

However, this only applies to pensioners who have no additional income.

Anyone who submits an income tax return, for example because they work independently on the side, receives the lump sum over the tax.

“But you have to take a close look at the income in individual cases, the rules are not really comprehensible,” warns Matthias Warneke, scientific director of the Taxpayers’ Association.

“Pensioners who operate a photovoltaic system commercially receive the EPP.

Those who rent out privately, on the other hand, get nothing.”

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5. Is it fair that many seniors get nothing?

According to the Ministry of Finance, the lump sum is intended to compensate for higher travel costs on the way to work - and pensioners have no way to work.

6. Which groups still get nothing?

Unemployed, trainees or students, provided they do not receive a salary.

7. Is it possible to get the EPP with a trick?

Antje Tillmann from the CDU claims that it is enough if pensioners just take care of their grandchildren and collect twelve euros minimum wage for it.

If you state this in your tax return, you will receive the EPP.

The Ministry of Finance makes it clear: If, as a courtesy, for example among relatives, "a contract is only concluded pro forma in order to receive the EPP", there is no entitlement to payment.

On the contrary: there are even criminal or fine consequences.

One can only advise against the Tillmann trick.

8. What are the tax deductions?

According to the Ministry of Finance, an average of 193 euros of the 300 euros net will reach the citizens.

According to calculations by the taxpayers' association, a single person with a gross monthly income of 2500 euros would be left with 217 euros, with a monthly gross income of 5000 euros it would be 187 euros.

A double-earner family with two children and a total gross income of 6,000 euros per month will receive 422 instead of 600 euros after deductions.

9. When will the lump sum be paid out?

Employees automatically receive the lump sum with their salary in September or – if there is no other organizational option – by the end of the year at the very latest.

10. How much does the lump sum cost the state?

Around 10.4 billion euros, plus the costs of implementation – estimated at between 225 and 755 million euros.