AfD on finance and taxes

The AfD demands sweeping tax cuts: property tax, inheritance and gift tax, the solidarity surcharge, and the CO₂ levy would be scrapped. Incomes, savings, and businesses would get relief because the party believes the tax burden dampens the will to work.

The AfD wants to abolish many taxes. These include the property tax and the inheritance tax. The charge on CO₂ should also go. People and companies should pay less tax.

No real estate transfer tax would be due on a first owner-occupied home. The basic income tax allowance and the savers' allowance would rise, bracket creep would end, and family splitting would be introduced. Electricity, energy, and corporate taxes would fall; small and mid-sized firms would pay tax only on withdrawn profits. The AfD rejects a global minimum tax and wants large digital corporations taxed where they make their sales. Municipalities should compete more on tax rates.

The AfD wants water associations and municipalities to quickly refund connection fees that were charged unlawfully. The state is to set uniform rules for this and keep the associations and municipalities from becoming insolvent as a result.

Many people in Brandenburg paid fees for water connections that were not lawful. The AfD wants them to get their money back fast. The state should make the same rules for everyone. Water associations and towns should not go broke because of this.

The platform cites a Federal Constitutional Court ruling of November 12, 2015, which found that charging the fees retroactively was unlawful. So far, it says, only people who objected in time got their money back. The AfD wants the state government to draw up uniform standards that also cover refunds of fee notices that have already become final. Any looming insolvency of the associations and municipalities is to be averted in advance.

The AfD wants the state to pay in full for building and upgrading municipal roads. Residents would no longer be charged, because the platform regards road building as a basic public service.

Residents often have to pay when their street is built. The AfD wants to end that. The state should pay all of these costs. The party says roads are a job for the government.

According to the platform, residents are still being charged even though upgrade fees were abolished, because projects are wrongly classified as first-time development. It says bills of several tens of thousands of euros threaten the livelihood of many homeowners. Having the state cover the costs is meant to keep cash-strapped municipalities from billing incorrectly or skipping road upgrades altogether.

The AfD wants to revise the fiscal equalization act and the municipal charges act. The aim is to keep most municipalities from sliding into provisional budget management over late annual accounts and having to cut voluntary spending.

Many towns are behind on their yearly accounts. Then they may only pay for required tasks. Clubs, for example, would get no more money. The AfD wants to change the laws so this does not happen.

Under current law, municipalities whose accounts are more than three years overdue must switch to provisional budget management. The platform blames the backlog on overloaded audit offices and overwhelmed municipalities. It says 80 percent of Brandenburg's municipalities would be affected from January 1, 2025; in Teltow-Fläming county only one of 13 would be spared. The AfD names the end of voluntary payments such as funding for clubs as a consequence.

The AfD aims for a state budget without new debt and wants to review and limit government spending. The administration is not to grow further, and citizens are not to face a higher financial burden.

The state should not spend more money than it takes in. The AfD wants to check and cut spending. There should be no extra jobs in government offices. People should not pay more than they do today.

Speculative financial deals such as swaps are to remain excluded from the budget, and debt is to be paid down in good economic times. The AfD wants to ban shifting debt into publicly owned companies and require leasing contracts to be clearly shown, so that the true level of debt is visible. Additional administrative tasks are to be covered by staff from areas where the workload is shrinking. State-owned companies are to work only for the administration itself, with everything else left to private firms. A symbolic taxpayer remembrance day is meant to show how high taxes and contributions are and push politicians toward relief.

The AfD wants tax offices to treat business owners with less suspicion and to work faster. Taxpayers are to receive a draft of their tax return prepared by the office.

Tax offices should be friendlier to citizens. They should not suspect businesses right away. Tax returns should be processed faster. The office should fill in part of the tax return in advance.

The platform points to complaints from many businesses about distrust on the part of the tax authorities. Tax office staff are therefore to be trained accordingly. Shorter processing times and a draft return containing the data the office already has are meant to make things easier. The taxpayer remains responsible for the accuracy of the return.

The AfD demands that a right to cash be written into the Grundgesetz (Basic Law). It sees cash as protection against financial control and surveillance by the state and banks.

The AfD wants to protect cash. The right to cash should be written into the constitution. The AfD says that without cash, the state and banks can see everything. They would know who pays for what.

According to the platform, without cash, savings could be devalued at will, hit with negative interest or expropriated. If payments were only electronic, the state and banks would see all money flows and possibly people's whereabouts. The AfD warns of surveillance reaching into private areas of life. It regards cash as a foundation of civil liberty.

The AfD wants to make the waste of public funds a criminal offense, comparable to tax evasion. Politicians are also to be personally liable, because in the party's view waste has hardly any consequences so far.

Anyone who wastes tax money should be punished. It should be treated like tax fraud. Politicians should also be personally liable. The AfD says almost nothing happens to those responsible today.

The platform sees the lack of a criminal provision as an indirect incentive to waste money. Criminal liability and personal liability are meant to counter this and, according to the AfD, end widespread irresponsibility in politics and government. Decision-makers are to keep room for maneuver. No one is to be held accountable without being personally at fault.

The AfD wants to reorganize how tax revenue is split between the state and municipalities so that towns and villages receive more money. According to the party, most municipalities are chronically underfunded.

Towns and villages should get more money from the state. The AfD says many municipalities have too little money. They can hardly pay for their tasks. Often almost nothing is left for sports and culture.

The platform notes that municipalities have many tasks, while their own tax sources are limited and depend on population and the local economy. It says mandatory tasks can hardly be paid for from their own revenue, and voluntary services such as cultural and sports facilities are cut sharply. Debt keeps rising despite savings. The AfD sees the state as responsible for strengthening municipalities financially and thus halting the decline of towns and villages.

The AfD wants to lower Brandenburg's real estate transfer tax from 6.5 to three percent. For the purchase of a first owner-occupied home it is to be dropped entirely, to make it easier for families to buy their own home.

People who buy a house or land pay a tax. In Brandenburg it is 6.5 percent. The AfD wants to cut it to 3 percent. For a first home of your own, you should pay nothing.

According to the platform, the current rate is among the highest in Germany. The AfD considers it unfair to families and says it only serves to finance an unsound budget. The cut is meant to help more Germans own property.