"Especially now!" Greens are demanding excess profit tax - Linder and Merz are slowing down

Created: 2022-08-20 06:16

By: Julia Schöneseiffen

Disagreement in the traffic light coalition: The Greens and the SPD are demanding an excess profit tax.

Finance Minister Lindner strictly rejects this.

Berlin – Rising energy costs and food prices: The Ukraine war is causing prices to explode.

Consumers are increasingly suffering from the financial burden.

With the gas levy that has been decided, the burden on private customers and companies will also increase.

But there are also winners in the current crisis.

Oil and gas companies in particular are benefiting from the increased prices.

As a result, calls for skimming off the profits of those companies that are benefiting from the current crisis are increasing.

Several European countries have already taken this path, including Italy, Great Britain, Greece, Romania and Hungary.

Other countries plan to introduce such a tax.

In Germany, Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) and SPD leader Saskia Esken, among others, are calling for such an excess profit tax.

The term excess profit tax refers to state deductions on the profits of companies in certain sectors that earn significantly better than usual as a result of a crisis such as the Ukraine war. 

Excess profit tax: The Greens demand taxation of additional profits caused by the crisis

Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) has spoken out in favor of introducing an excess profit tax.

If companies make "good excess profits" under the current circumstances, the debate should be held as to whether these profits can not be used to cushion hardship and poverty, Habeck said on Monday (August 15).

"You know I think that's right," he added.

The Greens parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag, Katharina Dröge, is also calling for the introduction of a tax on companies' additional profits caused by the crisis.

In addition to the planned reduction in VAT on gas consumption, further relief is necessary, she told the AFP news agency.

"For counter-financing, the introduction of an excess profit tax is now even more necessary."

Economics Minister Robert Habeck calls for the introduction of an excess profit tax.

(Iconic image) © Britta Pedersen/dpa

"In this way, corporations that are benefiting excessively from the crisis would make their contribution to social cohesion in Germany," explained Dröge.

"It's a question of justice." At the same time, "more decisive action to reduce environmentally harmful subsidies" is necessary.

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The SPD is also in favor of an excess profit tax.

SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil, for example, prefers the excess profit tax to finance relief.

FDP: Christian Lindner rejects excess profit tax

Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP), on the other hand, has again rejected an excess profit tax.

"Tax law must be protected from arbitrariness," said Lindner of the Düsseldorf

.

At the same time, the finance minister admitted that the profits made by electricity producers were "partly of a coincidental nature".

However, this is related to the rules of the electricity market and cannot be "corrected" by tax law.

The excess profit tax in Great Britain is not a model for Germany: "The resigned British Prime Minister Johnson is a populist and not a good advisor for us." France had decided against it in parliament, Italy had problems with the implementation.

"Such ideas first came up with vaccine manufacturers," explained Lindner.

"Then it was about mineral oil companies, although none of them have their headquarters in Germany.

Now it's about power companies.

That shows the mood swings.

We need a tax system that is predictable and neutral for everyone to make investment decisions.”

CDU leader Merz classifies excess profit tax as unrealistic

Meanwhile, CDU leader Friedrich Merz showed understanding for the demand for an excess profit tax, but classified it as unrealistic.

"The demand is understandable, but the practical implementation is almost impossible," Merz told the

.

The legally certain definition of what exactly an excess profit is is hardly possible.

"That's why my prognosis is: That will never happen," said the Union faction leader.

Merz also accused the advocates of an excess profit tax of not making a specific proposal as to how such a tax should be structured.

In addition, profits would already be subject to corporation tax, trade tax and income tax.