CDU on finance and taxes

The CDU wants to pursue tax fraud and financial crime more aggressively by giving tax auditors and investigators more staff and technology. Through a Bundesrat initiative, it also wants businesses to be required to accept at least one digital means of payment.

The CDU wants to fight tax fraud harder. Tax investigators should get more staff and technology. They should be able to use police data. Shops should have to accept digital payment. For example, by card.

Tax audits and the tax investigation office would get more staff and modern analysis tools. Tax authorities, prosecutors, and customs are to cooperate more closely, and tax investigators would be connected to police data portals. Organized tax evasion and international tax avoidance would be specifically targeted. A Bundesrat (upper house) initiative would create a federal requirement for businesses to accept at least one digital payment method.

The CDU wants to introduce a Grundsteuer C, a land tax that charges vacant, build-ready plots at a particularly high rate. This is meant to encourage quick construction on such land. Schemes to avoid the real estate transfer tax are also to be stopped.

Some plots of land are ready for building but stay empty. The CDU wants a higher tax on them. It is called land tax C. Owners should then build faster. Tricks to avoid the property purchase tax should be stopped.

According to the program, the property tax reform has already shifted the burden from residential property to vacant land. Land tax C is to target these incentives more precisely. The CDU also wants to effectively stop arrangements used to avoid the real estate transfer tax and to conceal profits.

The CDU wants to continue budget consolidation and comply with the debt brake, citing fairness between generations. All areas are to be checked for savings, social spending steered more precisely, and the offerings of what it calls the 'free-of-charge city' reviewed.

The CDU does not want new debt. There is a rule for this called the debt brake. The party says this is fair to future generations. All spending should be checked. Free services and social spending will also be reviewed.

State social spending is to be coordinated across departments, regularly checked for effectiveness and freed from double funding, while people in need still get support. At the federal level, the CDU wants legal changes to avoid false incentives and halt the rise in social spending. Voluntary funding programs and free services are to be reviewed so scarce funds go where they are needed.

The CDU rules out raising any taxes that Berlin controls directly and wants to keep local business tax multipliers stable. Instead of higher taxes, it relies on sound budgeting, an efficient administration, and strict spending control.

The CDU does not want to raise taxes in Berlin. This applies to all taxes the city sets itself. The local business tax should also stay the same. Companies pay this tax. Instead, the city should be careful with money.

Spending decisions are to prioritize a functioning city and investment in infrastructure, education, security, and growth. The CDU sees the Gewerbesteuer (local business tax) as a key location factor for skilled trades, small and mid-sized firms, and industry, so its multipliers are to stay unchanged. This is meant to give businesses planning certainty. A strong economy is supposed to attract private investment and secure stable long-term revenue for the city.

The CDU wants to make Berlin's tax offices more effective and continue the organizational reform it has already started. In its view, well-functioning tax offices are essential for funding the city and for tax fairness.

The CDU wants to improve Berlin's tax offices. These offices collect taxes. They should become more modern and faster. More work should happen digitally. This should help the staff.

The organizational reform launched by the CDU is to continue. It calls for clear responsibilities, modern management structures, and more efficient workflows. The main focus is further digitization, with modern IT systems, fully digital processes, and user-friendly communication with citizens and businesses. According to the program, digitization should support employees rather than be an end in itself.

The CDU wants Berlin's state-owned land and buildings to be managed more on commercial principles and under central control. As a rule, the properties are to stay in public hands, but sales should be possible in justified individual cases.

Berlin owns a lot of land and buildings. The CDU wants to manage them in a more business-like way. Unused buildings should be rented out. Sometimes Berlin should be allowed to sell land. The money should then go to other buildings.

The true costs of operating, maintaining, and managing buildings are to be recorded realistically to avoid hidden subsidies. Investment decisions are to be based mainly on cost-effectiveness and life-cycle costs. Space the state does not need long-term is to be rented to third parties to raise money for renovations. Sales are allowed only if the proceeds are reinvested in the property portfolio; selling to fund the general budget remains ruled out.