CDU on finance and taxes

The CDU wants to push for the reduced value-added tax rate for the hospitality sector to become permanent. Hotels and restaurants should also be able to recruit workers from outside the EU. The platform regards the sector as an important part of the economy.

Restaurants and hotels pay less sales tax right now. The CDU wants to keep it that way. These businesses should also be able to hire workers from outside the EU. The CDU wants to help them after the Covid period.

The tax rate that was lowered during the pandemic should not expire but be made permanent, according to the CDU. The party wants to support and fund modernization in restaurants and hotels and their restart after Covid. Staffing needs should also be met with workers from non-EU countries.

The CDU wants to keep the Schuldenbremse (constitutional debt brake), continue paying down debt and consolidate the state budget. It cites responsibility toward taxpayers and future generations as well as protection against inflation. At the same time, the budget is to focus on raising investment.

The CDU does not want new debt. It wants to keep the debt brake. That is a rule in the constitution against new debt. The state should spend carefully and pay off old debt. Still, more money should go to investment.

The platform describes sound finances as a precondition for crisis-proof policy and as an effective long-term remedy against inflation. All projects are to be re-prioritized again and again depending on how revenues develop. All state spending is to be reviewed continuously, taking into account the age structure of staff and the digitalization of administration. Structural reforms are meant to open up new financial leeway.

The CDU wants to modernize the division of tasks between the federal government and the states through a new federalism commission. The states are to get a larger share of indirect taxes and be allowed to set their own surcharges and discounts on tax rates. According to the platform, this is meant to promote competition among the states.

The CDU wants new rules on what the federal government does and what the states do. A commission will work on this. The states should get more money from certain taxes. They should be allowed to raise or lower tax rates a little.

The goals of the reform are faster and more efficient decisions and clear political responsibilities at both levels. The states' share is to cover indirect taxes, which the platform describes as dynamic. The expanded tax autonomy is to apply independently of the fiscal equalization system among the states. The platform calls surcharges and discounts on tax rates a suitable tool for more competition between the states.

The CDU wants to create a separate pension fund for newly hired state civil servants. Their retirement benefits are to be capital-funded, meaning paid from accumulated reserves. The state legislature is no longer to have access to this money.

The CDU wants a new fund for civil servants' pensions. It only covers newly hired state civil servants. The state will save money there for later. The state parliament may not take this money for other uses.

The civil servants' pension fund is to handle pay and pensions and be based at the Niedersächsisches Landesamt, a state office. Gradually growing reserves are to be built up in a pension fund for this purpose. The rule applies only to civil servants who newly enter state service.

The CDU wants to pursue money laundering and organized tax crime more forcefully, using artificial intelligence and big-data technology in tax investigations. The tax administration is to work fully digitally and without paper. Citizens are to be able to communicate with tax offices easily and quickly.

The CDU wants to fight money laundering and large-scale tax fraud harder. Tax investigators will use artificial intelligence for this. Tax offices will work digitally and without paper. People should find it easier to contact the tax office.

Tax audits and tax investigations are to be targeted and low on red tape; audits are to run faster and with better digital support. The effects of past and expected digitalization are to be measured and used to develop the tax administration further. The northern German states are to cooperate more closely on tax matters, relying on the shared service provider Dataport and more open-source products. Also planned are automated information exchange among tax offices and with benefit agencies, and fewer tasks for the state tax office.

The CDU wants to hand municipalities more money they can spend at their own discretion and to simplify funding procedures. The program argues that municipalities account for about two thirds of public investment in the state.

The CDU wants to give towns and villages more money. They should decide for themselves how to spend it. Applying for funding should become easier. One office should advise them on all funding programs.

The plan includes more lump-sum grants, more needs-based grants, and a return to regionalized sub-budgets. A new law on measures and funding for major projects is meant to simplify proof-of-use rules and shorten procedures, for example through deemed approvals and digital participation. Federal money is to be passed on in full, and the principle that whoever assigns a task must pay for it is to be strictly observed. The NBank, the state development bank, is to get a competence center for acquiring funding and become the single contact point for all funding programs. Village renewal and urban development programs are to be continued and better coordinated.

The CDU wants to keep the debt brake and the existing rule for paying down old municipal debt. At the same time, the state and municipalities are to jointly support financially weak municipalities through a "partnership for the future."

The CDU wants to keep the debt brake. The debt brake limits new government debt. Poor towns should get help. The state and the towns should pay for this together.

The existing rule under which municipalities pay down old debt is to stay in place. A partnership for the future is planned in which the state and municipalities make uniform contributions for weaker municipalities. The CDU wants to work out solutions to the legacy debt problem together with the municipalities.