Grüne on finance and taxes

The Greens want to introduce a hardship rule for the property tax (Grundsteuer). It is meant to shield small businesses, clubs, and social and cultural venues, among others, from steep tax increases. The goal is to preserve the mixed character of Berlin's neighborhoods.

Property tax is a tax on land and buildings. For some, it has gone up a lot. The Greens want a special rule for hard cases. It should protect small shops, clubs and cultural places. This should keep neighborhoods mixed and lively.

The platform lists small businesses, clubs, lakeside beaches, trailer communities (Wagenburgen), and social and cultural institutions as examples of those to be covered. The rule would apply when property tax rises disproportionately. It is part of a broader aim to support neighborhoods that combine housing, culture, social services, small business and trades. Affordable commercial space is also to be secured and made available. According to the platform, urban planning should involve the public and be coordinated with the boroughs.

The Greens want to raise the real estate transfer tax to Brandenburg's level and scale it by social criteria. People buying a home to live in would pay less, large companies more. At the federal level, tax loopholes for share deals and in inheritance tax would be closed.

People who buy a house or land pay a tax. The Greens want to raise this tax. People who want to live in the home should pay less. Big companies should pay more. Tax tricks when buying whole companies should end too.

Large companies would be taxed more heavily especially when they acquire property portfolios through share deals, meaning they buy stakes in companies rather than the buildings themselves. At the federal level, the Greens want to close this arrangement as a loophole. The same applies to inheritance tax, where the platform cites the tax-free transfer of more than 300 apartments as an example.

The Greens want to act against owners who do not use building land for housing. To do so, they plan to introduce Grundsteuer C, a higher tax on undeveloped land that is ready for construction, along with strict building obligations.

Some owners leave building land empty. The Greens want to change that. Empty building land should get its own tax. It is called Grundsteuer C. There should also be a duty to build.

The program targets real estate speculation on plots where no housing is being built. Grundsteuer C is a separate tax on land that is ready for construction but left undeveloped. In addition, strict building orders are meant to oblige owners to build.

The Greens want to put considerably more public money into climate neutrality and infrastructure repair, using all permitted borrowing room. At the federal level they want the debt brake in its present form to be dropped, because in the party's view it blocks investment in the future.

The Greens want to invest more money in Berlin. The money should go to climate protection and to repairing buildings and facilities. Berlin should borrow as much as the rules allow. The debt brake limits new government debt. The Greens want to end it in its current form.

The state is to make full use of permitted structural and cyclical borrowing and deploy its share of the federal special fund in a targeted way. State-owned companies and investment vehicles are to invest additionally through transaction loans. The budget is to become reliable and predictable without spending growing unchecked. To that end, the Greens want to resume talks with social service providers, cultural and educational institutions, the districts and state employees. Federally, they seek new debt rules.

The Greens want to modernize grant law, meaning the rules under which the state funds civil society projects. Multi-year commitments and simpler accounting are meant to give providers and their staff more security.

Berlin gives money to social groups and projects. The Greens want to make the rules for this simpler. Projects should be able to get money for several years. Applications should be handled digitally. Then staff know earlier what comes next.

Grants should be able to run for more than one year so that jobs are not secured only until year-end. A flat rate for overhead costs is to simplify accounting and cut red tape. Procedures are to be fully digital so the administration can decide on applications faster. The platform argues that work done on behalf of the public must be good work and that the state should set an example.

The Greens want to steer the state budget more by what spending achieves, especially for climate protection and gender equality. Budget data is also to be presented in a way the public can understand.

The Greens want to check what the state's money achieves. They look especially at climate and equality. Everyone should easily see what Berlin spends money on. Citizens should have a say on budgets in the districts.

The climate budget is to become a real steering tool and follow the state's emissions path. The Senate is to back this path with measures in medium-term financial planning and promptly monitor their implementation and effect. Budget data should show how much money goes where. The party supports participatory budgets in the districts and wants to examine reviving the statewide participatory budget.

The Greens want to push at the federal level for a wealth tax on the very rich and to remove inheritance tax exemptions for especially large fortunes. The revenue goes to the states and is meant to let Berlin reliably support people in need.

Very rich people should again pay a tax on their wealth. Very large inheritances should no longer get exceptions. The Greens want to push for this at the federal level. The states get the money. Berlin should use it to help people in need.

The platform justifies the demand with a record number of billionaires and multimillionaires in Germany. It contrasts this with one in four children in Berlin being at risk of poverty and rising old-age poverty. It also says the state has lacked money for buses, bridges and libraries for years. Both taxes flow into state budgets.

The Greens want to improve the state's revenue with a tax on single-use packaging, adjusted parking fees, and a real estate transfer tax at Brandenburg's level. The transfer tax is also to be graduated on social grounds.

Berlin should take in more money. The Greens want a tax on single-use packaging. This should also cut trash in parks. Parking should cost differently than today. Large companies should pay more tax when they buy property.

Fees for resident parking and short-term parking are, in the party's words, to be set at an appropriate and ecological level. The packaging tax follows the model of the city of Tübingen and is meant to reduce litter in green spaces and neighborhoods. The real estate transfer tax rate is to match Brandenburg's. A concept for social graduation is meant to make buying a home easier for Berliners, while large companies pay more.

The Greens see the fight against tax evasion as also a fight against organized crime. They want a state real estate register, better-equipped tax offices, more audits of companies and people with million-euro incomes, and a federal reform against share deals.

Some people and companies do not pay their taxes. The Greens want to pursue this more strongly. Tax offices should get more staff. A register should show who really owns buildings. Companies should no longer be able to avoid the tax on buying property.

Specialized units and tools are to be set up in the administration and police, and illegally obtained profits are to be confiscated. The register is to reveal the actual owners of real estate. Tax offices are to get more staff and digital technology; the Senate finance department is to instruct them to prioritize cases with the highest yield for the budget. Federally, the Greens want to stop the real estate transfer tax from being avoided in share deals, where buyers acquire company shares instead of the property itself. According to the platform, Berlin lost more than one billion euros in the takeover of Deutsche Wohnen alone.

The Greens want to offset disadvantages faced by people of East German background in wealth, rents, and wages. To that end, they call at the federal level for a reform of inheritance and wealth taxes, changes to tenancy law, and considerably higher minimum wages.

In the East, people inherit less and often earn less. The Greens want to balance this out. Taxes on inheritance and wealth should change. The minimum wage should rise considerably. Rents should stay stable and affordable.

The program justifies the demands by noting that in the East less is inherited, more people rent, and pay is lower on average. The minimum wage is to rise substantially at both the state and federal level. More companies are to be covered by collective agreements. The party also wants to support unions and the founding of new works councils.

The Greens want to apply the connexity principle to district funding: whoever assigns a task to the districts should also cover its cost. In addition, pools of floating staff are to be expanded so that district offices can process residents' requests promptly.

The districts often get new tasks from the state. The Greens want this rule: whoever hands out a task also pays for it. This is called connexity. There should also be more floater teams. These teams help out in offices when there is a lot of work.

The platform points to the connexity rule anchored in Berlin's constitution and wants to establish it firmly in district funding. This is meant to let districts carry out their tasks in a forward-looking, service-friendly way and secure basic social, cultural and infrastructure services in every neighborhood. In addition, the floater pools known as Flex:Units are to grow. Two central units are planned to help district offices during temporary peaks in workload.