SPD on finance and taxes

The SPD wants to introduce Grundsteuer C in Bremen, a higher property tax on undeveloped land that is ready for building. In the Bundesrat, it wants gains from selling residential property not used by the owner to always be taxed. Investors in large projects are to share infrastructure costs.

Some people buy land and leave it empty. They wait for prices to go up. The SPD wants a special tax for that. Profits from selling rented homes should always be taxed too. Big investors should help pay for roads and similar things.

Grundsteuer C is to be introduced as soon as federal law allows it from 2025. In larger development projects, planning gains are to be captured by having investors cover part of the infrastructure costs. At the federal level, the SPD wants to scrap the so-called speculation period; currently, sale gains are tax-free after a certain holding period. The program argues that tax-free gains without any effort by the owner are unfair and fuel speculation on the real estate market.

The SPD backs the federal coalition's plans for a "family taxation" model. It considers Ehegattensplitting (joint tax splitting for married couples) outdated because it discourages married women from working.

Married couples often pay less tax today. This is called spousal splitting. The SPD says it leads many women to work little or not at all. So it supports a new family tax model at the federal level.

The platform describes spousal tax splitting as a holdover from a time when the husband was the main earner. It says the model gives married women incentives to work little or not at all. As a result, many women stay with the homemaker model. The SPD supports the federal government's plan to introduce a family taxation model.

The SPD rejects a return to the pre-COVID policy of budget consolidation, arguing that climate action and the expansion of schools and daycare could not be managed that way. Instead, public companies are to take on more tasks that the regular budget cannot cover alone under the Schuldenbremse (debt brake).

Bremen needs a lot of money for climate action, schools and daycare. The debt brake limits new debt in the budget. So the SPD wants to use public companies more. They should help pay for big building projects.

The platform names as main areas the energy retrofitting of schools, daycare centers, and other public buildings, which the Climate Enquete commission identified as the largest and most expensive field of climate action in Bremen. Added to this are new schools and daycare centers, municipal hospital construction, and the expansion of public transit. In the SPD's view, pure austerity would endanger Bremen's economic and social development. Bremen is therefore to strengthen its financial capacity.

The SPD wants Bremen to make the fullest possible use of federal and EU funding programs for the climate-friendly transformation. Government departments are to get better at identifying programs and securing money. At the federal level, it wants co-financing requirements that do not overburden financially weak states.

The federal government and the EU give money for climate-friendly change. The SPD wants Bremen to get a lot of it. Government offices should get better at applying for this money. Poor states should not have to pay too much themselves.

The departments are to be permanently equipped to spot suitable programs and apply successfully. The state is also to create the conditions for providing its own co-financing shares quickly. The platform cites the University of Bremen's success in raising third-party funds as a model. The goal is for the whole state to become a leader in the ratio of grants to its own funds.

The SPD wants to increase the population of Bremen and Bremerhaven because a large share of the state's tax revenue depends on it. Bonuses for first-time residence registration are to rise, and political decisions should not encourage people to move away.

Bremen gets more money when more people live there. So the SPD wants to attract new residents. People who register in Bremen or Bremerhaven for the first time should get a higher bonus. Students and trainees in particular should register there.

The platform calls population development a strategic factor because the distribution of an important tax depends on the number of residents compared with other states. Major decisions are to be checked more closely for whether they push people to leave. The SPD names jobs and sufficient housing as the core task, along with good transport links to business parks in the surrounding area. Students and trainees who commute in should register their residence in the two cities, and the registration bonuses will go up. The party also wants to promote Bremen and Bremerhaven more systematically as places to study and train.

The SPD criticizes the debt brake and wants to examine what unused leeway it offers for important projects. It is open to exempting the two cities from Bremen's debt brake and backs emergency loans for climate action and the consequences of recent crises.

The debt brake limits new government debt. The SPD thinks this rule is too strict. It wants to check where Bremen can still borrow money. The cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven could be exempted from the rule. Then there would be more money for schools, daycare and roads.

As long as the federal government does not tax high incomes, wealth and inheritances more heavily, the SPD wants to explore options for borrowing. Exempting the cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven from the state rule would, according to the platform, allow extra investment in schools, daycare centers, roads and bike paths, but it requires amending the state constitution with a broad majority in parliament. As a second route, the platform cites the emergency exception, which Bremen has used to create a credit line of 3 billion euros for its climate strategy and for the fallout from the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis. Because of Bremen's high legacy debt, these loans are to be used efficiently and, within the climate strategy, mainly for investment.

The SPD wants to keep pressing the federal government and the other states for a solution to legacy debt. It justifies this with the burdens that Bremen's contribution to tackling the climate crisis and other crises entails.

Bremen has a lot of old debt. The SPD wants the federal government and the other states to help with it. It will keep pushing for this. Debt that the state took over from its cities should also count.

The platform points to the state's high legacy debt and the extra burden from new emergency loans. In the SPD's view, a relief plan should not cover only the legacy debt that municipalities still carry. It should also take into account cases where a state has already relieved its municipalities by taking over their debt, as happened in Bremen.

The SPD wants to steer additional funds mainly into building, modernizing and equipping schools and daycare centers and into the recommendations of the climate commission (Klima-Enquete). Projects that cut a lot of CO2, strengthen the economy and bring in outside funding get preference.

The SPD wants to spend extra money on schools and daycare first. New buildings should be built and old ones modernized. The second big goal is climate protection. Public buildings should use less energy. Projects that bring in outside money come first.

One focus is on new schools and daycare centers, their funding and staffing, and the modernization of existing facilities. According to the platform, energy retrofits of public buildings are the largest financial item of the climate strategy and mainly concern schools and daycare centers. On climate, the SPD wants to concentrate first on measures with the biggest CO2 reductions, while also counting projects with leverage effects, such as in science and research. Projects should strengthen the economic base and population growth and must not cause residents or businesses to leave. Projects with a high share of third-party funding get priority.

The SPD wants to push at the federal level for a tax system in which those with greater means contribute more. It pursues taxation of wealth and inheritances, a higher top income tax rate and a financial transaction tax, and backs EU efforts to tax international corporations.

The SPD wants rich people to pay more taxes. This concerns high incomes, large fortunes and inheritances. Trades on financial markets should also be taxed. Big international companies should pay more taxes. The SPD pushes for this at the federal level and in the EU.

The SPD argues that fair funding of public services is a precondition for social justice, participation and a state that can act. At the EU level it supports efforts to close tax loopholes and to tax international corporations, especially internet companies, more appropriately. The platform calls it a grievance that global corporations pay a markedly smaller share in taxes than small and mid-sized companies operating mainly in Germany.

The SPD calls for a burden-sharing scheme for the fallout from the Covid crisis and the war in Ukraine, similar to the one after World War II. A windfall profits tax is to skim off profits that, in the party's view, companies made in the crises without earning them.

The crises cost many people money. But some companies earned a great deal in the crises. The SPD wants to balance this out. It wants a windfall profits tax. That is a tax on especially high crisis profits.

According to the platform, many people suffered losses or higher expenses, while others were hardly affected and some companies profited exceptionally. Some, it says, enriched themselves without effort thanks to their market power. The SPD cites the burden-sharing scheme of West Germany's early years as a model. Alongside the tax, it supports efforts to combat such profits through tougher antitrust law.

The SPD wants to ensure efficient tax collection in Bremen and staff the tax offices with enough auditors. It regards tax fraud as a crime that weakens trust in the rule of law.

Some people do not pay their taxes honestly. The SPD calls this a crime. It wants tax offices to have enough auditors. That way the state can collect taxes better.

According to the platform, anyone who evades taxes lives at the expense of the public. Tax fraud is also said to endanger social cohesion. Tax offices in Bremen should therefore have enough staff to audit and collect taxes effectively.