AfD on finance and taxes

The AfD wants tax relief for citizens and businesses. The basic tax-free allowance would rise sharply, corporate taxes would fall, and the solidarity surcharge would end for everyone. The aim is higher take-home pay and more financial leeway.

The AfD wants lower taxes. More of a person's income should be tax-free. Companies should pay less tax. The solidarity surcharge should end for everyone. People who save privately for old age should get bigger tax breaks.

Income tax would fall through a substantially higher basic allowance. The party considers corporate taxes too high by international comparison and wants to bring them to a competitive level. The solidarity surcharge would be eliminated completely. The tax and social system would be fundamentally simplified and made easier to understand. Contributions to private, funded retirement plans would be more widely deductible, and the AfD wants to promote private wealth building and home ownership.

The AfD wants to keep the Schuldenbremse (the constitutional debt brake) unchanged and balance the federal budget through savings. In its view, Germany has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. It wants cuts to climate spending, projects abroad, EU contributions, grants to NGOs and the government's public relations work, among other things.

The debt brake limits new government debt. The AfD does not want to loosen it. Instead, the government should spend less money. For example, the AfD wants to pay less to the EU. There should also be less money for climate protection and projects abroad.

Contributions to the EU, put at just under 30 billion euros for 2023, would be cut sharply. The AfD wants to review one by one the more than 500 NGOs funded by the federal government directly or through federally owned companies, along with their projects, to eliminate spending it considers unnecessary and ideological. Government public relations would be limited to important information not available elsewhere. The connexity principle ("whoever orders, pays") would be strictly applied to the benefit of municipalities. The costs of immigration would appear as a separate item in the federal budget. The stated reasoning is that future generations should not be burdened further with debt and interest.

The AfD wants to greatly simplify tax law by introducing an income tax schedule with only a few brackets. Tax rates would fall, and in return write-off options for tax-saving schemes would be reduced. Businesses would be taxed the same regardless of their legal form.

The AfD thinks German tax law is too complicated. It wants to make it simpler. Income tax should have only a few brackets. Tax rates should go down. In return, there should be fewer ways to save on taxes.

The platform points to more than 30,000 provisions and calls German tax law one of the most complicated in the world. Collecting taxes costs time and money and, in the AfD's view, deters companies from setting up in Germany or drives them abroad. The plan includes a bracket-based income tax schedule, lower rates and fewer write-offs for tax-saving schemes. Corporate taxation would be made neutral as to legal form. The party expects a clearer system and simpler, cheaper tax collection.

The AfD wants a uniform value-added tax rate of 7 percent for restaurants and bars again. It argues that the return to 19 percent at the start of 2024 pushed prices up and forced restaurants to close.

The AfD wants to lower the sales tax in restaurants. It should be only 7 percent. Today it is 19 percent. The AfD says eating out has become too expensive. Many restaurants had to close because of this.

The rate on food and drinks in restaurants went back up from 7 to 19 percent at the start of 2024. The platform sees this as one more driver of prices, on top of higher costs for food, energy, and staff. It says owners had to raise prices and demand then collapsed. The AfD calls for a single 7 percent rate for the sector.

The AfD wants to raise the basic income tax allowance to €15,000 and tie allowances to an index. This is meant to relieve low earners and the middle class and keep a gap between wages and welfare benefits.

The AfD wants to raise the basic tax-free allowance. That is the part of your income you pay no tax on. It should be €15,000 a year. It should rise with prices automatically in the future. The AfD says work should pay off more.

The platform considers today's allowance too low given inflation, especially for food. The allowance would no longer be based on social assistance rules. Indexing the allowances is meant to rule out hidden tax increases in the future. The other thresholds of the tax schedule, up to the top rate, would move up accordingly. The AfD expects this to give people a stronger incentive to work.

The AfD wants to scrap the Grundsteuer (property tax) entirely. Cities and towns would be compensated through surcharges on income tax and corporate tax. The platform calls the property tax complicated, costly to administer, and unfair.

The AfD wants to end the property tax. This is a tax on land and buildings. Towns get this money today. They would get a share of other taxes instead. The AfD says renters would also pay less.

The platform criticizes the federal model for relying on standard land values that it considers often outdated, imprecise, or arbitrary. It also says the tax violates the principle of equal treatment because it ignores the individual features of a property. Surcharges on income tax and corporate tax are meant to replace municipal revenue in full. The burden would then follow people's economic ability to pay. In the AfD's view, renters would benefit too.

The AfD wants to scrap the inheritance tax and permanently abolish the wealth tax, which is currently not collected. In its view, both taxes hit assets that were already taxed once and bring in little revenue for a lot of effort.

The AfD wants to end two taxes. One is the tax on inheritances. The other is the tax on wealth. The state does not collect that one right now. The AfD says this money was already taxed once.

The platform classifies both as taxes on assets themselves, charged regardless of a taxpayer's ability to pay. It says the administrative effort is out of proportion and the revenue for the state is small. It also argues that the inheritance tax sets the wrong incentives when wealth passes to the next generation. When someone inherits, it can lead to businesses being sold or closed and jobs being lost. Some kinds of assets also cannot be valued with legal certainty, the AfD says.

The AfD wants to raise the tax-free amount for investment income from €1,000 for single people to €6,672 and tie it to the mini-job earnings limit. This is meant to help the middle class in particular build wealth and private retirement savings.

The AfD wants to raise the savers' allowance. Up to this amount, interest and investment gains are tax-free. Today it is €1,000 a year. The AfD wants €6,672. This should make it easier to save for old age.

The platform says the current €1,000 a year for single people is no longer enough. The new figure would follow the Geringfügigkeitsgrenze, the earnings limit for mini-jobs. The main beneficiaries would be people who want to build wealth with smaller investment returns. The AfD links this to financial self-determination, stronger private retirement provision, and investment without state subsidies.

The AfD wants the Bundesbank to move all gold reserves held abroad to Germany and demands a special balance-sheet status for the gold, secured in the constitution. In the long run, it aims for currency competition or a gold-backed currency.

Germany owns a lot of gold. Part of it is stored in other countries. The AfD wants to bring all of it to Germany. The gold should get special protection. Later, gold should back the value of money.

The gold is meant to keep Germany able to act in a currency crisis and could serve as temporary backing if the D-Mark returned. The platform points to losses at the Bundesbank and its small equity. It sees a risk that the gold could be written off to balance the books. A special status for the reserve, anchored in constitutional law, is meant to prevent that. Over the long term, the AfD considers free competition between currencies or a gold-backed system necessary.

The AfD wants the Bundesbank's Target-2 claims in the eurozone payment system to be reduced first and later settled daily. Until then, they should be backed by collateral. The party sees the balances as a risk worth billions for German taxpayers.

Target-2 is a payment system of the euro countries. Germany's central bank has large open claims there. The AfD sees a risk for taxpayers. The claims should shrink. Later, countries should settle them every day.

The platform puts the Bundesbank's claims against the ECB at more than one trillion euros. It says they are unsecured, carry interest that does not reflect the risk, and cannot be called in. The AfD assumes that if the eurozone broke up, the ECB would repay them only in devalued money or not at all. The balances should therefore be reduced, then settled daily, and collateralized in the meantime. As one option, the platform mentions a German sovereign wealth fund that would use the balance to buy foreign stocks, gold or other tangible assets.

The AfD wants to secure cash permanently as legal tender and write its use into the Grundgesetz (Basic Law) as a civil liberty. It justifies this with protection against surveillance, negative interest rates and expropriation. Public authorities should not be allowed to refuse cash payments.

The AfD wants to protect cash. This should be written into the constitution. Everyone should always be able to pay with bills and coins. Government offices should have to accept cash too. The AfD says that without cash, the state can see all payments.

In the platform's view, cash is being phased out step by step, with backing from the federal government, the IMF and the ECB. The AfD sees cash as a fee-free store of value and a safeguard against negative interest rates and against expropriation of account holders. Purely electronic payment would, it argues, let the state and banks control all money flows and even people's whereabouts. Electronic systems are also said to be prone to outages and manipulation. The Basic Law should therefore guarantee cash and its use, and public bodies should not be able to opt out of the duty to accept it.

The AfD wants to largely free Bitcoin, its wallets and its trading venues from regulation. Current tax rules for Bitcoin and the right to hold coins oneself should stay in place. The party sees Bitcoin as state-free money in a competition among currencies.

Bitcoin is digital money without a state behind it. The AfD likes that. It wants far fewer rules for Bitcoin. The tax rules for Bitcoin should stay as they are. Everyone should be allowed to store their own Bitcoins.

The platform sees Bitcoin as threatened by growing regulation at home and abroad, citing the EU's MiCAR regulation as an example. According to the AfD, Bitcoin now fulfills most functions of money thanks to its market value and circulation. Bitcoin transactions should remain exempt from sales tax. The party also wants to keep the rule that gains are tax-free after a one-year holding period. Self-managed wallets should remain legal, and policymakers should show restraint on taxes and rules.

The AfD wants to introduce family income splitting, raise the child tax allowance and cut VAT on children's goods to 7 percent. It adds a loan for young married couples and easier terms for students with a child. The relief is aimed mainly at middle-income families.

Families should pay less tax. Things for children should carry only 7 percent sales tax. Young couples should get a loan for their first household items. With each child they pay back less. Students with a child should get help too.

Under family splitting, the number of children is taken into account when income tax is calculated. Children's goods would fall under the reduced VAT rate of 7 percent. Young couples would, under certain conditions, receive an Ehe-Start-Kredit (marriage start-up loan) for first purchases, part of which is forgiven with each child. Those who have a child during training or university and complete their degree would not have to repay BAföG (student aid). Students with children could extend the standard period of study by up to six semesters on request.