CSU on finance and taxes

The CSU wants Bavaria to stick permanently to a balanced budget, take on no new debt and pay down existing debt. It rejects tax increases. The platform justifies this with preserving financial leeway for future generations.

The CSU wants no new debt for Bavaria. The state should only spend what it takes in. The CSU wants to pay back old debt. It says no to higher taxes.

The platform points to Bavaria's high investment rate and its top “AAA/A-1+” credit rating. The CSU wants to keep budgeting carefully while investing in the future. Its stated goals are full employment across Bavaria and “opportunities instead of debt” for children and grandchildren. Instead of higher taxes, it wants relief for citizens and businesses.

To counter inflation and high energy prices, the CSU calls for cutting the electricity tax to the EU minimum and for low electricity prices for industry and mid-sized firms. It also wants to lower VAT on food and drinks and keep the reduced VAT rate for restaurants permanently.

The CSU wants electricity to cost less. The tax on electricity should drop sharply. The tax on food and drinks should also go down. Restaurants should keep their lower tax rate. The CSU wants to stop a tax on hotel stays.

The electricity tax would fall to 0.1 cents per kilowatt-hour for households and 0.05 cents for businesses. The platform also demands a competitive industrial electricity price and a permanently low price specifically for mid-sized companies. VAT would be lowered on all food and drinks, which the CSU calls a price brake for everyone. For restaurants, it wants the reduced VAT rate made permanent. Bavaria should have no bed tax on overnight stays; in tourist regions, digital visitor management is meant to ease the burden on residents.

The CSU wants to fully abolish the solidarity surcharge and bracket creep ("kalte Progression"). The commuter tax allowance would rise to 38 cents from the first kilometer. The platform justifies this by saying that effort must pay off.

The CSU wants to scrap the solidarity surcharge completely. That is an extra charge on top of income tax. Taxes should also stop rising quietly when prices rise. People who drive to work should be able to deduct more from their taxes.

The income tax schedule would become a “tariff on wheels,” meaning it would shift automatically with prices so that pay raises do not lead to a higher tax burden because of inflation. The commuter allowance would be 38 cents from the first kilometer and be adjusted dynamically in the future. The CSU presents itself here as the representative of average earners.

The CSU wants higher exemptions and lower rates for the inheritance tax. In the future, the states would decide the level of the tax themselves. According to the platform, the tax burdens family businesses and disadvantages Bavaria because of high land prices.

The CSU wants heirs to pay less tax. Each state should set its own inheritance tax. The CSU says nobody should have to sell their parents' home to pay the tax.

The CSU describes the inheritance tax as hostile to mid-sized businesses and a threat to hard-earned prosperity. It argues that higher property values make the tax hit heirs in Bavaria especially hard. Family property should stay in the family, the platform says. It accuses the federal government of an inheritance tax policy that leads to a “sell-off of the homeland.”

The CSU considers the Länderfinanzausgleich (fiscal equalization among the states) unfair and is suing over it. In the future, transfers should only cover the core and mandatory tasks of recipient states. Bavarian tax money should mainly benefit people in Bavaria.

Rich states give money to poorer states in Germany. Bavaria pays a lot. The CSU thinks this is unfair and is going to court. The money should only pay for the basic duties of other states.

According to the platform, Bavaria has paid in more than 100 billion euros so far and received 3.4 billion euros in total. The CSU wants to use a lawsuit to achieve what it sees as a fairer arrangement. Payments would be limited to fulfilling basic government tasks.