AfD on finance and taxes

The AfD wants to extend Ehegattensplitting (joint tax splitting for married couples) to include the children in a household, so that their number lowers the parents' income tax. The platform justifies this with the poverty risk of large families and single parents. Child benefit and the child supplement would remain.

Married couples pay tax together today and often save money this way. The AfD wants children to count too. Parents with more children should pay less tax. Child benefit should stay.

According to the platform, in large families and single-parent households often only one person earns the income. It says today's mix of splitting, allowances and child benefit does not offset the disadvantages compared with people without children. Family splitting is meant to ease the tax burden on families and single parents. Parents should be better able to provide for their family from their own earnings.

The AfD wants the state to take over the short-term liquidity loans of all municipalities, not just some. The money is to come from the state's budget stabilization reserve. Lower interest costs are meant to prevent further increases in property and business taxes.

Many towns and cities have high debts. So far, the state has helped only some of them. The AfD wants the state to take over these debts for all of them. There is a reserve in the state budget for this. Then towns would not have to raise their taxes further.

Through the PEK-RP debt relief program, the state took over three billion euros in liquidity loans, but only from 650 of the 2,450 municipalities. The platform calls this a start. For a full takeover, the AfD points to more than three billion euros in the Haushaltssicherungsrücklage (budget stabilization reserve). Debt relief is supposed to cut interest spending so that local tax multipliers do not have to rise further.

The AfD wants to give municipalities more state money through the municipal revenue-sharing system and pay out a larger share without earmarks. Earmarked state grant programs are to be replaced by general allocations. Local councils would then decide for themselves how to spend the money.

The state gives money to towns and cities. The AfD wants them to get more money. Towns should decide themselves how to spend it. Today the state often tells them what to do with it. That should change.

The platform notes that the revenue-sharing system was unconstitutional from 2007 to 2020 and, in the AfD's view, still provides too little money after the 2023 reform. Better funding is meant to prevent rising property and business tax multipliers and to avoid another constitutional violation. The AfD calls grant programs such as "KIPKI" or "RZN" ideological and bureaucratic because applications, proof of use and possible repayments take a lot of effort. Without earmarks, it says, staff could be saved, and local decision-makers know best what is needed.

The AfD wants to abolish the charges that property owners pay when roads are upgraded. It considers them unfair, inefficient and bureaucratic. In return, municipalities would receive at least 90 million euros a year from the state.

People who own land often have to pay when their road is rebuilt. The AfD wants to end these charges. The state should give towns the missing money. That is at least 90 million euros a year.

According to the platform, the charges are unfair because owners pay even if they do not use the road or the upgrade leaves them worse off. It also says municipalities delay repairs until a chargeable upgrade becomes due. On long-term average, more than 22 percent of revenue is said to be lost to collection and enforcement. Compensation would flow through the municipal revenue-sharing system, distributed by the length of the affected road network. Five million euros are set aside to retrain the administrative staff who handled the charges.

The AfD first wants to determine how large the repair backlog in the municipalities is. A plan agreed with the municipalities is then supposed to ensure that the backlog is fully cleared within 15 years.

Many roads, sports fields and kindergartens are in bad shape. The AfD first wants to find out how much needs fixing. Then there should be a plan with the towns. Everything should be repaired within 15 years.

According to the platform, municipal infrastructure, including hospitals, is in dangerously poor condition in places, and the state government does not know the size of the backlog. It says AfD motions in the state parliament to survey the backlog were voted down. The planned roadmap would set out both the financing and the individual measures. The AfD sees working infrastructure as a basic public service and a precondition for the economy; it also describes the repairs as a stimulus program for small and mid-sized businesses and skilled trades.

The AfD wants to ease the burden on citizens and businesses by cutting or scrapping taxes; it rejects new taxes. At the federal level it backs a flat income tax rate of 25 percent, higher allowances and an end to inheritance and gift tax.

The AfD thinks people pay too much in taxes. It wants to lower or end taxes. There should be no new taxes. Income tax should have one rate of 25 percent for everyone. The tax on inheritances should go away.

The platform describes Germany as a high-tax country with a burden of around fifty percent and says indirect taxes hit low-income people especially hard. At the federal level, the AfD wants to raise the basic allowance and the child allowance. Property tax and business tax are to be replaced by other arrangements. The party regards the tax system as too complex and therefore unfair, because only some can afford expensive tax advice.

The AfD wants to lower the state's real estate transfer tax from five to 3.5 percent to make buying property easier. Through the Bundesrat, it also wants an allowance for owner-occupied homes that takes the number of children into account. In the long run, the tax is to be dropped entirely for owner-occupiers.

People who buy a house or apartment pay a tax. Today it is 5 percent of the price. The AfD wants to lower it to 3.5 percent. Families with children should pay even less. Later the tax should end for people who live in the home themselves.

The platform argues that the tax has to be paid out of savings because banks generally do not finance closing costs. That reduces the buyer's equity, which leads to higher loan interest rates. Each state sets the rate itself, whereas the allowance requires an initiative in the Bundesrat (the chamber of the states). All property purchases would benefit from the lower rate, while the allowance would mainly help families who need more space because of their children.

The AfD rejects a tax on single-use packaging for takeout food and drinks, which several cities in the state are debating. It considers the tax environmentally ineffective and highly bureaucratic and wants to avoid extra costs for restaurants and consumers.

Some cities want a tax on throwaway packaging. This affects things like coffee cups and paper bags for rolls. The AfD is against it. It says the tax does not help the environment. And it makes takeout food more expensive.

The tax was first levied in Tübingen in 2022 and covers items such as coffee cups, salad bowls and ice cream cups. The platform cites a University of Tübingen study that found the hoped-for drop in waste did not occur. It also criticizes the state government for recommending that municipalities grant inspectors a right to enter business premises. The AfD wants to prevent the tax from being introduced in the state's cities and towns.

The AfD wants to push at the federal level to abolish property taxes and the Gewerbesteuer (local trade tax). Municipalities would instead get a larger share of income tax revenue and their own surcharge on income and corporate tax. This is also meant to lower the running costs of housing.

The AfD wants to end the property tax. It also wants to end the trade tax. Businesses pay the trade tax to their town. Towns would get other money instead. The AfD also wants to ban towns from adding new taxes on water or living space.

The program calls the property tax a foreign body in the tax system because it is not based on a taxpayer's ability to pay. The AfD regards the trade tax as redundant because it resembles the corporate tax, and says businesses would become more competitive internationally without it. As a replacement, municipalities would get a higher share of income tax and a local surcharge on income and corporate tax. The property tax return expected in 2029 would no longer be needed. The AfD also wants to bar municipalities from introducing a water tax or a tax on living space, in order to reduce housing-related costs.

The AfD rejects Sondervermögen (special off-budget funds) on principle and calls them debt-financed shadow budgets. It demands budget discipline, transparency, and debt reduction instead, so that taxes can be lowered later.

A special fund is an extra pot next to the normal budget. The state usually fills it with debt. The AfD rejects such pots. It wants to pay down debt. Taxes should then go down later.

The program points to at least 13 special funds set up by the federal government over the past 20 years, including the Climate and Transformation Fund and the special fund for the Bundeswehr. At the state level it cites the Rheinland-Pfalz-Plan for education, climate, and infrastructure, launched in 2025 with 600 million euros. In the AfD's view, these funds shift debt onto future generations and often pay for ideological programs. The party's guiding principle also includes transparent budget execution so that parliament and the public can spot waste early.