Search for the billions: In view of the emergency budget situation, the FDP wants to reduce citizens’ money. The Greens counter: They want the end of company car privileges.
Berlin – Hands off citizens’ money: The Greens have clearly rejected the FDP’s demand for social policy savings – and expanded the debate about the budget dispute to include a new proposal. The billion-dollar hole in the coffers is to be compensated for, among other things, by abolishing the company car privilege.
“That would be a total of around 1.8 billion euros that could be saved at this point,” said Andreas Audretsch in an interview with RTL and n-tv. People with large cars, which cause major environmental damage, would particularly benefit from the tax relief. “That doesn’t make sense at this time.”
Dispute over the budget: Abolition of the company car privilege should save billions
The demand for the abolition of company car privileges is no coincidence. The federal government is forced to save money. The Federal Constitutional Court had declared the previous budget planning to be unconstitutional and criticized the planned reallocation of special funds. Overall, there is a budget gap of around 60 billion euros. Many projects are now on the brink because there is currently a lack of suitable financing.
What is the company car privilege?
The so-called company car privilege is the tax advantage for the private owner and user of a company car. The employer provides the employee with a car – also for private use. The company can deduct the acquisition costs from tax as operating costs; the same applies to ongoing costs such as repairs, fuel or wear and tear for business trips.
Emergency in the budget: Lindner insists on debt brake
The SPD and the Greens would therefore like to declare an emergency and use this vehicle to temporarily suspend the debt brake – similar to what happened during Corona. This budgetary policy trick would allow more loans to be taken out than the around 21.9 billion euros permitted by the debt brake. But the FDP is resisting this. Finance Minister Christian Lindner drew a red line just yesterday. If the SPD and the Greens continue to seriously insist on this, then it could endanger the continued existence of the traffic light coalition, he said in an interview with the news portal The Pioneer warned.
He would rather make the savings elsewhere – for example with citizens’ money. According to the CDU’s calculations, this could also reduce costs by just over one billion euros. But that is unimaginable for the SPD and the Greens. For both parties, the abolition of Hartz IV and the introduction of the new citizens’ money was a central campaign promise. Even a waiver of an increase in unemployment rates that has already been decided is considered non-negotiable by them.
For the Greens, the threat of abolishing company car privileges is an important bargaining chip. In the past few months, the Eco Party has often conjured up the demand – probably also to prick the Liberals and make it clear to them that a move away from the citizen’s benefit reform can only be achieved in exchange for a central point of the FDP’s promises. The Green party leader Katharina Dröge recently put forward the demand when negotiations over the financing of the Germany ticket stalled because Minister Lindner insisted on compliance with the debt brake.
Federal Audit Office is eyeing the traffic light coalition’s budget tricks
It remains to be seen whether high earners will soon have to forego their company car privileges. Negotiations to reorganize the budget are in full swing. On Monday, Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) canceled a planned trip to the world climate summit in Dubai in order to accompany the financial policy discussions in Berlin. Everyone involved was optimistic that a solution would be found. But the coalition is under close scrutiny. While Habeck’s authority is constantly pushing forward with new proposals, the Federal Audit Office has already criticized the first plans for the new budget. (jeki)
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