AfD on finance and taxes

The AfD wants a state law that bars municipalities from taxing single-use packaging for food and drinks. It sees the tax as a burden on citizens, restaurants, retail and skilled trades. It says the administrative effort is out of proportion to the revenue.

Some cities want a tax on throwaway packaging for food and drinks. The AfD is against it. It wants to ban this tax in the whole state. It says the tax makes things cost more. It also means a lot of work for companies and offices.

At present, municipalities in Saxony-Anhalt may levy such a tax on packaging for food eaten on the spot, and several towns are debating it. The AfD wants to change the state's municipal charges law so that introducing it is ruled out. In its view the levy is hostile to business and consumption because citizens end up paying the costs.

The AfD wants to use the Bundesrat to lower the electricity tax for private households from 2.05 to 0.1 cents per kilowatt-hour. The tax would also be cut for all businesses. The aim is to relieve low-income residents and stop the loss of industry and jobs.

People pay a tax on electricity. The AfD wants to cut this tax sharply. It should be as low as the EU allows. This should apply to homes and to all companies. People with little money would then pay less.

The platform points out that the federal government promised an electricity tax cut in its coalition agreement but did not deliver it for everyone. For private households, the rate would drop to the EU minimum of 0.1 cents per kilowatt-hour. A Bundesrat initiative would extend the cut to all businesses, not just industry, agriculture and forestry. The same initiative would also seek to resume energy imports from Russia. The AfD sees energy prices as a key factor for business location and wants to start a process of reindustrialization.

The AfD wants to use the Bundesrat to get the energy tax on gasoline and diesel lowered to the minimum the EU allows. This is meant mainly to relieve commuters. The platform points to the high share of taxes and levies in fuel prices.

The AfD wants to make gasoline and diesel cheaper. To do this, the tax on fuel should drop sharply. It should only be as high as the EU requires at minimum. This should help people who drive to work.

According to the platform, taxes and levies made up 61 percent of the gasoline price and 53 percent of the diesel price in 2025. The AfD notes that the Federal Cartel Office found higher fuel prices in eastern Germany in 2025 and singled out Saxony-Anhalt as a negative example. The party's state parliamentary group had already filed a motion to lower fuel prices in 2022. The platform describes Saxony-Anhalt as a state of commuters.

The AfD wants to guarantee every municipality a binding minimum level of funding and to pay down old short-term cash loans through a special program. Municipal fiscal equalization and state funding programs would be restructured so that small rural communities are not worse off than cities.

The AfD wants to give towns and villages more money. Every municipality should get a fixed minimum amount. A special program should reduce old municipal debts. Small villages should no longer get less funding than big cities.

The program points to a federal estimate of a 6.8 billion euro deficit in municipal budgets for 2023 and blames it on the wrong priorities of the other parties. The state is to provide needs-based funds so that community halls and kindergartens can be renovated. State infrastructure programs, for example for roads, school renovation, culture and broadband, should no longer depend on population size. Fiscal equalization is to be reweighted so that every municipality can carry out its mandatory tasks. Special programs for local shops, village stores and services for seniors are also planned. Municipal finances are to improve even without new wind and solar installations.

The AfD wants an across-the-board spending cut of at least ten percent in all ministries, fewer ministries, and a smaller workforce. It also wants to lower the government spending ratio and switch the state budget to commercial accounting. The program justifies this with sharply increased administrative costs.

The AfD wants the state to spend less money on administration. Every ministry should cut at least ten percent. There should be fewer ministries. The number of state employees should also go down step by step.

According to the program, the cost of bureaucracy has risen by more than 60 percent in ten years. The government spending ratio, meaning public spending as a share of economic output, should be no more than 45 percent in Saxony-Anhalt. All agencies would undergo a review of planned versus actual staffing and of their tasks, and duplicate responsibilities would be eliminated. Vacant positions would be refilled only in exceptional cases, so that staff numbers fall gradually. Like the municipalities, the state would fully switch to double-entry bookkeeping (Doppik) so that, in the party's view, debts, investments, and risks are shown transparently.

The AfD wants to lower the property transfer tax (Grunderwerbsteuer) in Saxony-Anhalt from 5 to 2.5 percent. The aim is to make buying a home easier, which the party sees as a basis for financial freedom.

People who buy a house or an apartment pay a tax. The AfD wants to cut this tax in half. Then buying a home costs less.

The tax rate would drop from the current 5 percent to 2.5 percent. The platform argues that homeowners who pay no rent have far more financial room. Renters, it says, often spend a third or even half of their income on housing. Buying property should therefore become noticeably easier.

The AfD wants to abolish small taxes that raise little revenue, arguing that they cause a lot of red tape. It also promises not to introduce any new levies or raise taxes in the state.

Some taxes bring the state little money. But they cause a lot of work. The AfD wants to end these taxes. It also promises that the state will get no new taxes.

At the state level, the platform names the beer tax as an example to be dropped. The AfD wants to recommend that municipalities give up the entertainment tax, the second-home tax, and similar levies. The party rules out new levies and tax increases in the state. At the federal level, it wants to push for a lower overall tax and contribution burden, which it says would help the working middle class and mid-sized businesses.

The AfD wants to review every item of state spending and cut those it considers unnecessary. The budget would be organized by service areas with measurable targets, so that it becomes visible what the money achieves.

The AfD wants to check every expense of the state. Expenses that are not needed should go. The budget should show what the state spends money on. It should also show what the money achieves.

Spending the platform considers unnecessary or inefficient would be dropped without replacement, and consulting contracts would face especially strict review. In the AfD's view, the state government should operate like a merchant, with spending discipline and no new debt. In addition, every expense would be assigned to a "product," meaning a service area, and tied to targets or indicators. The party sees this as a performance agreement between politicians and the administration that obliges agencies to deliver measurable results and prevents hidden cross-subsidies.

The AfD wants to push at the federal level for the state to stop collecting the church tax on behalf of the churches. It sees this as a privilege that burdens the administration and is no longer justified.

Today the state collects the church tax for the churches. The AfD wants to stop that. The churches should collect their money themselves. The AfD says this takes work off public offices.

The platform points out that the state currently collects the church tax, which is tied to income tax, for the two large churches. The AfD wants this task to end. Churches would collect their dues the way associations do from their members. Because the rule is not solely a state matter, the party announces an initiative at the federal level.

The AfD wants to let the state audit office (Landesrechnungshof) examine how state money is used all the way down to the final recipient. This would mainly affect welfare associations and social enterprises, which the party says have so far faced little oversight.

The state audit office checks how the state spends money. The AfD wants to give it more rights. It should also check groups that get money from the state. The AfD wants to stop misuse of tax money this way.

To do this, the state budget code would be amended. The audit office would also be allowed to examine private-law organizations that receive public money through payment agreements; the platform names the AWO welfare association as an example. The AfD criticizes that the audit office too often deals with trivial matters while some areas go unaudited. According to the party, the change is meant to prevent tax money from being used for political campaigns or demonstrations "against the right."

The AfD wants to stop creating special funds (Sondervermögen) and dissolve existing ones, which it regards as hidden debt. A budget transparency law would ban lump-sum savings targets, and the debt brake would apply without exceptions.

A special fund is a pot of money outside the normal budget. The AfD says these are hidden debts. It wants to close these funds. A new law should make the budget clear and honest. The state should take on no new debt.

In the platform's view, special funds circumvent the debt brake and conceal the real budget situation; the AfD points to its opposition to the state's Covid special fund. Only what appears in the regular budget should be spent. The planned budget transparency law would require all revenue and spending to be shown completely and in a traceable way. Global spending reductions, meaning lump-sum savings targets not assigned to specific items, would be dropped; the party considers them unconstitutional. The debt brake would be observed without exceptions or workarounds.

The AfD wants to restructure the state's revenue-sharing law (Finanzausgleichsgesetz) so that cities and towns receive more money they can use freely. New tasks the state assigns to municipalities would be paid for automatically and in full.

The state gives money to cities and towns. The AfD wants them to get more money. They should decide for themselves how to spend it. If the state gives them new tasks, it should also pay for them.

The total amount the state distributes to municipalities would rise above today's minimum level. The money would flow mainly as general formula-based grants and less through earmarked funding programs, which the platform calls "golden reins." An automatic compensation rule would cover new or expanded municipal tasks permanently and in full. In the Bundesrat, the AfD wants to achieve larger municipal shares of income tax and sales tax as well as simpler distribution rules. Incentives for municipalities to build their own tax base would be kept.