AfD on finance and taxes

The AfD wants to create a permanent state fund modeled on Norway's within its first 100 days. Its returns on the capital markets would pay for extra infrastructure investment without new debt. The money would come from savings in the budget.

Roads, bridges and schools need money. The AfD does not want new debt for this. It wants to set up a fund. A fund is a big pot of money that is invested. The state would build and repair with the profits.

The fund would invest on the capital markets, reinvest part of its gains, and grow over time. The other part would gradually go into infrastructure, on top of regular budget spending. It would be fed by savings in the state budget; the AfD points to the debt brake in its earlier form. The platform rejects debt-financed repairs because they would burden future generations. The fund would be anchored in the state constitution so later governments cannot tap its assets.

The AfD wants to give municipalities more revenue of their own and more tax autonomy, and to rebuild the municipal fiscal equalization system as a two-tier model. In its account, the current system neither secures adequate basic funding nor rewards municipalities for cultivating their own tax sources.

The AfD wants to give cities and towns more money. Towns should decide more taxes themselves. The way money is shared between the state and towns should also change. The AfD says the current system does not work.

The municipal share of sales tax would rise, and rate-setting powers for the real estate transfer tax would be expanded. Municipalities would also be allowed to set their own multiplier on their share of income tax, which Article 106 of the Basic Law permits. Fiscal equalization would have two parts: guaranteed minimum funding for core tasks, including a baseline of voluntary tasks such as culture and sports, and funding for additional tasks depending on the state's financial capacity. The platform points to a municipal deficit of nearly 3 billion euros in 2024 and criticizes the federal and state governments for assigning tasks without funding them.

The AfD calls for a new reform of fiscal equalization among Germany's states and backs Bavaria's lawsuit before the Federal Constitutional Court. It considers the growing burden on the few contributor states unacceptable.

Rich German states give money to poorer states. Baden-Württemberg is one of the states that pay. The AfD thinks the paying states pay too much. It wants to change the rules. It supports a lawsuit by Bavaria in court.

According to the platform, the equalization system in force since 2020 is widening the gap between contributor and recipient states. In 2025 the equalization total is said to have exceeded 11 billion euros for the first time, borne by only four states. The AfD criticizes that some recipient states are not undertaking structural reforms.

The AfD wants to scrap the Grundsteuer (property tax) completely. It considers the tax unfair, costly to administer and a burden on owners and renters alike. Municipalities would get a larger share of federal tax revenue instead.

The AfD wants to end the property tax. This is a tax on land and buildings. The AfD thinks this tax is unfair. Towns and cities should get money from the federal government instead.

The platform calls the property tax a tax on assets, meaning it is levied on existing wealth rather than on income. It says the tax drives up administrative costs, discourages investment and hits owners and renters. The AfD expects abolition to cut red tape for citizens and government offices. The municipalities' revenue loss would be offset by a larger share of federal tax revenue.