Linke on finance and taxes

The Left wants to exempt staple foods, hygiene products and bus and train tickets from value-added tax. This is meant to give quick relief to households with little money and boost purchasing power.

The Left wants to end the sales tax on basic foods. The same goes for hygiene products and tickets for buses and trains. These things should become cheaper. Stores must pass the tax cut on to customers.

The exemption would cover staple foods, hygiene products and tickets for regional and long-distance transit. A law is to make sure food companies and supermarkets pass the cut on to customers. The platform also plans reduced rates for labor-intensive trades, medicines and children's products. The same applies to repair and dismantling services so that reuse takes priority over disposal. The reasoning is that VAT hits low incomes especially hard.

The Left wants to levy the wealth tax again, with rates from 1 to 5 percent and 12 percent above one billion euros. It also calls for one-time wealth levies on the richest. According to the platform, the goal is that billionaires no longer exist.

Very rich people should pay a tax on their wealth. The first million euros stays tax-free. Those with more than a billion pay 12 percent on the part above it. There should also be a one-time levy on the richest. The Left wants there to be no more billionaires.

The allowance would be one million euros of private wealth per person after debts, and 5 million for business assets. The rate rises linearly from 1 percent to 5 percent at 50 million euros; the platform estimates 108 billion euros in extra revenue a year. A one-time levy would charge the richest 0.7 percent up to 30 percent, payable over 20 years, raising at least 310 billion euros. Germany is to push for an internationally coordinated billionaire tax. The plan also includes a public financial register of the true owners of large assets and a property tax reform based on market value.

The Left wants to make income up to 16,800 euros a year tax-free and tax top incomes at up to 75 percent. Capital income is to be taxed like income from work.

People who earn little should pay less tax. Up to 16,800 euros a year, there should be no tax at all. People who earn very much should pay clearly more. Gains from investments should be taxed like wages.

By the platform's rule of thumb, a single person earning under 7,000 euros gross per month would pay less. From 85,000 euros of annual income the rate would be 53 percent, above 250,000 euros 60 percent and above one million 75 percent. The solidarity surcharge would stay for the top ten percent. The flat 25 percent tax on capital income would be replaced by regular income tax rates. Retirees, apprentices, students and employees who have not received one so far would get a one-time tax-funded inflation payment.

The Left wants to tax large inheritances and gifts more heavily and eliminate exemptions for business assets. Ordinary owner-occupied homes would remain tax-free.

People who inherit very much should pay more tax. Exceptions for inherited companies should end. Each heir may receive 200,000 euros tax-free. A home the heir lives in also stays tax-free.

Tax rates would be unified, starting at 6 percent and rising to 60 percent from 3 million euros of taxable inheritance. A uniform allowance of 200,000 euros is planned, which also applies to one freely chosen, unrelated person. Per inheritance, one owner-occupied property of up to 200 square meters stays exempt. The tax could be spread over 20 years or paid in company shares to the public sector. The platform expects 17 billion euros in extra revenue a year.

The Left wants to raise the corporate income tax to 25 percent and push for the global minimum tax to match that rate. Multinational companies would be taxed where they actually do business. The platform argues that the tax burden on companies has fallen sharply over recent decades.

The Left wants higher taxes for companies. The tax on company profits should rise to 25 percent. Big companies should no longer be able to move profits to other countries.

Beyond the higher rate, the tax base would be widened, for example by properly taxing gains from selling company shares. Profits would be taxed at the source, meaning where the activity takes place. Dividends, interest and license payments flowing to non-cooperative countries would face a 50 percent withholding tax. Multinationals would have to publish revenue, profits and tax payments country by country. The tonnage tax for large shipping companies would be abolished. The platform estimates extra revenue of 42 billion euros a year.

The Left wants to replace the Gewerbesteuer (local trade tax) with a municipal business tax levied on a broader base that also covers high-earning self-employed people. The platform points to underfunded municipalities and competition among towns over low tax rates.

The Left wants to change the local business tax. Businesses pay this tax to their town. In the future, well-paid self-employed people should pay it too. This should give towns and cities more money.

Rents, leases, leasing payments and license fees would be counted when calculating the tax. High-earning freelancers and self-employed people would be included. In return, the tax-free allowance would rise to 30,000 euros, and the tax paid would be taken into account for income tax. The share of the trade tax that municipalities pass on to the federal and state governments would be abolished. The platform expects 18 billion euros in extra revenue per year.

The Left wants to tax every financial transaction at 0.1 percent. The tax is meant to curb speculation and, according to the platform, to stabilize and shrink financial markets.

The Left wants a new tax on financial trades. Every trade on the markets would cost 0.1 percent. This should slow down speculation. Speculation means betting on prices.

According to the platform, the tax would mainly hit high-frequency trading, where very large sums are moved quickly at thin margins. Expected extra revenue is 36 billion euros a year. The goal is a smaller and more stable financial sector.

The Left wants to tax the extra profits companies make during crises at 90 percent. In the platform's view, energy companies used their market power during the war in Ukraine to make record profits at the public's expense.

Some companies earn a lot more during a crisis. The Left wants to tax these extra profits heavily. 90 percent would go to the state. The money should benefit everyone.

The platform names RWE, Shell and Total as examples of companies that booked very high profits from rising prices during the war in Ukraine. The tax would apply to all crisis profits. The revenue would be returned to the public.

The Left wants to fight tax fraud and money laundering with more staff, more audits of the very wealthy, and criminal liability for companies. German citizens would be taxed in Germany regardless of where they live. The platform cites cases such as Cum-Ex and Wirecard.

The Left wants to go after tax fraud harder. Tax offices should get more staff. Very rich people should be checked more often. Companies themselves could be punished. Germans living abroad would still pay German taxes.

The federal government would publish a yearly estimate of how much tax goes uncollected and use it to set targets for the tax administration. Prosecutors and tax offices would get more staff and better technology. BaFin, the financial regulator, would record and review all investment and lending business and receive more specialists. Under citizenship-based taxation, taxes paid abroad would be credited. The platform expects 18 billion euros in extra revenue a year.

The Left wants to scrap the Schuldenbremse (constitutional debt brake) so that the federal and state governments can again finance investment with loans. In the platform's view, the rule has caused large gaps in infrastructure and social services. Municipalities would be strengthened through a finance reform and a fund for old debts.

The debt brake limits new government debt. The Left wants to get rid of it. The state should be able to borrow for investments. For example for schools, trains and housing. Poor cities should get help with old debts.

The platform cites an estimated need for 600 billion euros in additional investment over ten years. Borrowing would be allowed for infrastructure, a climate-neutral industry and social balance, especially in crises. More money would go to education, social programs and public housing, less to arms and climate-damaging subsidies. For municipalities, it plans a local finance reform, full counting of municipal fiscal strength in the fiscal equalization among states, and a fund for old debts.

The Left wants to shrink banks, wind down investment banking, and allow financial products only after approval by a financial safety inspectorate. According to the platform, the financial sector should serve society because financial crises can endanger entire states and welfare systems.

The Left wants to make banks smaller. Risky market deals should end. New financial products would need a permit first. Nobody should bet on food prices. Interest on overdrawn accounts should be capped.

Banks would be limited to payment services, simple savings products and financing investment. Speculation in food and essential public infrastructure would be stopped; hospital, care and real estate corporations would lose their stock exchange listing. Overdraft interest could be at most five percentage points above the ECB's key rate. On the EU taxonomy, the party calls for stricter criteria and rejects labeling nuclear and gas energy as sustainable. For over-indebted countries of the Global South, it demands debt relief involving private creditors and an insolvency procedure for states.

The Left wants a nationwide package to relieve municipal debt and wants the federal government to cover social benefit costs in full. The local business tax (Gewerbesteuer) would be turned into a broader municipal business tax.

Many towns have high debts. The Left wants to reduce these debts. The federal government should pay all social benefits. The local business tax should be changed.

Municipalities would be freed from budget consolidation plans and emergency budgets. Whoever causes costs, the federal government or the states, would also have to pay them. The local business tax would get a minimum multiplier of 350 percent to limit tax competition between municipalities. Grants would be available without a local co-payment, because otherwise the poorest municipalities miss out. Federal programs for municipalities would be made permanent with less red tape, and local self-government would be strengthened.