AfD on finance and taxes

The AfD calls for considerably more money for towns and municipalities, some of which it considers severely underfunded. The state development plan and the allocation of decision-making powers should be designed so that the state stays decentralized and rural areas do not fall behind.

The AfD wants to give towns and villages much more money. Local councils should decide more things themselves. The state should not put everything in a few places. Tourism in the countryside should also get support.

The improved funding is meant above all to keep rural areas livable. The state development plan should be transparent and give local municipalities more room to act. Mid-level authorities such as state agencies should become more visible as service providers for municipalities and citizens. The party also relies on promoting tourism in rural areas.

The AfD calls for permanently cutting value-added tax by four percentage points and scrapping the solidarity surcharge entirely. Business taxation is also to be reformed. The aim is to strengthen household purchasing power and the competitiveness of the economy.

The AfD wants lower taxes. Value-added tax should drop by four percentage points. The solidarity surcharge should end. The party also wants to change taxes for companies. People should then have more money to spend.

The platform justifies the demand with the level of taxes and contributions in Germany: it says the country ranks third in the EU for corporate taxation and first among all OECD countries for the burden on citizens. The VAT cut is meant to be permanent. The solidarity surcharge, currently still paid by higher earners and corporations, would be dropped completely. The AfD expects more consumer spending and a stronger position for the economy in international competition.

The AfD wants to abolish the charges residents pay when their street is upgraded. It considers them unfair and inefficient and points to high administrative costs caused by legal disputes.

Residents often have to pay when their street is upgraded. The AfD wants to end these charges completely. It thinks the charges are unfair. It says they lead to many legal disputes and cost the administration a lot of money.

In the platform's view, the charges place an undue burden on both residents and municipalities. The AfD says it will submit motions on this in the state parliament. It also plans to introduce a new bill to abolish them.

The AfD wants to lower taxes and levies, especially for families. It calls for family-based income splitting, abolishing road improvement charges on property owners, and keeping taxes on real estate as low as possible. It rejects environmental and climate taxes.

The AfD wants lower taxes and fees. Families should pay less tax through family splitting. That means children count when the tax is worked out. Residents should no longer pay for upgrades to their street. The AfD rejects taxes for the environment and the climate.

The platform attributes rising poverty in part to high taxes and levies and sees families as especially burdened. Family splitting is meant to reflect parents' child-rearing work in the tax system. The AfD considers environmental and climate taxes ideological and largely ineffective. It also wants to end double taxation and double contribution charges on income and pensions. The cost of collecting and administering taxes is to be cut sharply, and property is to stay protected from excessive state interference.

The AfD wants to reduce public debt on a planned schedule and forgo new borrowing. Its reasoning is that debt burdens future generations. The platform sees savings mainly in refugee and integration policy, in subsidy programs and in the administration.

The AfD wants the state to take on no new debt. The state should pay down old debt step by step. The party says debt is a burden for children and grandchildren. It wants to save money on refugees and integration. It also wants to cut subsidies and government offices.

All spending is to be critically reviewed and reassessed together with the state audit office and the Bund der Steuerzahler (taxpayers' association). As savings the platform names cuts in refugee and integration policy and ending institutional and project-based funding it considers unnecessary. Further costs are to fall by shrinking bureaucracy, for example by reducing the number of ministries. According to the party, a balanced budget in the long run requires major effort and sacrifice.

The AfD rejects higher taxes and levies on principle and wants to lower the Grunderwerbsteuer (property transfer tax). Families buying a home to live in are to receive an allowance per child. Road improvement levies charged to property owners are to be dropped entirely.

The AfD wants no higher taxes. The tax on buying land and houses should go down. Families should get 60,000 euros tax-free for each child. Residents should no longer pay when their street is rebuilt. The state should replace the lost money for towns.

In the party's view, the state should cut spending, apart from necessary investments in the future, rather than raise revenue. A lower property transfer tax is meant to relieve citizens and encourage saving for old age through home ownership. The allowance of 60,000 euros per child is intended to make buying a home easier for families. The AfD wants to scrap road improvement levies completely because they cause heavy red tape and can threaten the livelihood of those affected. Municipalities are to receive simple compensation from the state for the lost revenue.

The AfD wants a lasting improvement in the finances of Saarland's municipalities, whose debt is far above the national average. It plans adjustments to fiscal equalization, help with legacy debts and an infrastructure funding program. The federal government is also to be reminded of an announced write-off of old municipal debt.

Towns and cities in Saarland have high debts. The AfD wants to give them more money. The federal and state governments should pay for a program for buildings and roads. The federal government should also help with old debts. Towns must show that they spend carefully.

The platform cites municipal debt of 3,154 euros per resident in 2020 compared with a national average of 1,722 euros. Fiscal equalization is to be improved and the federal protective shield for municipalities continued through 2022. An infrastructure program by the federal and state governments is meant to clear the repair backlog in municipal buildings or enable investment in the transport transition. Funded municipalities are to prove each year that they are sticking to their consolidation path. The AfD also wants to remind Chancellor Scholz of his announcement of a debt write-off for heavily indebted municipalities.

The AfD wants the Grundsteuer (annual property tax) to be based on the area of land and buildings rather than on their value. In the party's view, regular valuation is too laborious and too expensive. The area model is meant to save costs for citizens and the administration.

The property tax is a yearly tax on land and houses. Today it depends on the value. The AfD wants to count only the area. That should be simpler and cheaper. Citizens and offices should have less work.

The value-based calculation requires a general assessment at regular intervals, which the platform describes as costly. Under the area model, the tax base is derived from the area of the plot and the building. The party points out that the Bund der Steuerzahler (taxpayers' association) also prefers this model. According to the AfD, both the introduction and ongoing operation would involve far less effort.

The AfD wants Saarland to invest more because its investment rate lags far behind other German states. Putting state finances in order should not come at the expense of investment in the future. More money is to go to transport routes, hospitals and educational facilities.

Saarland invests less than other German states. The AfD wants to change that. The state should save money, but not on important investments. There should be more money for roads, hospitals and schools.

According to the platform, net public investment has been so low for about ten years that the state is living off its existing assets. The party sees a particular need to catch up on public investment. It calls for additional funds for transport infrastructure, investment support for hospitals and educational infrastructure.

The AfD wants to preserve cash as legal tender without restriction and regards its use as a civil liberty. In the party's view, purely electronic payments open up possibilities for control that do not fit a free state under the rule of law. They would also create dependence on working technology.

The AfD wants to keep cash. Everyone should still be able to pay with bills and coins. The party says this is a freedom right. With only electronic money, the state can check too much. The technology can also fail.

The party opposes efforts it attributes to the federal government, the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and some EU member states. It considers the monitoring possibilities of an exclusively digital payment system incompatible with a free state under the rule of law. As a further argument, it says citizens and businesses would depend on data processing systems never failing if money were purely electronic.