SPD on finance and taxes

The SPD wants people of all ages to remain able to afford life in Hamburg. To that end, the real estate transfer tax is to be cut for young families, construction made cheaper, and a public transit ticket for seniors introduced.

The SPD wants Hamburg to stay affordable. Young families should pay less tax when they buy a home. Building should get cheaper. Older people should get their own ticket for buses and trains.

The program points to existing relief such as free daycare, free all-day school, the free student transit ticket and the housing construction program. New pledges are a lower real estate transfer tax for young families, cheaper construction through fewer rules, and a senior ticket for buses and trains. The SPD says Hamburg must not become affordable only for a few, as other metropolises have.

The SPD wants to invest about 20 billion euros in city infrastructure by 2030 while sticking to sound finances. The leeway allowed by the debt brake is to be used for this.

The SPD wants to spend about 20 billion euros by 2030. The money is for roads, buses and trains, schools and playgrounds. The city should still handle its money carefully. The rules on debt should be followed.

The money is to go into roads, public transit, schools, universities, cultural facilities and playgrounds. The city's accrual-based budgeting is to be modernized further, and the FinanzServiceAgentur used to borrow more cheaply. Starting with the 2025 budget, it is to be shown how agencies contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Impact monitoring is planned for the city's public companies.

The SPD wants to push at the federal level for a reform of the debt brake that also gives the states more options. It argues that investment mostly happens locally.

The debt brake limits how much the state may borrow. The SPD wants to change this rule. The German states should also get more room. They are the ones who build and invest locally.

The debt brake is anchored in the German constitution and in Hamburg's constitution. The SPD stresses that it uses the existing leeway responsibly. The reform is to be initiated at the federal level and allow the states to invest more.

The SPD wants to secure the city's revenue base and insists that federal tax cuts be soundly financed and targeted at the working middle class. Under the inheritance tax, very large inheritances should no longer be able to go largely untaxed.

The city needs tax money for its tasks. The SPD wants to protect this money. People who inherit a great deal should pay tax on it. Tax cuts should mainly help ordinary workers. Top earners should not get tax gifts.

In the SPD's view, targeted investment incentives help the economy more than relief for a few top earners. Inheritance tax revenue goes to the states. The aim is to prevent heirs of large fortunes from presenting themselves to the tax office as lacking means and so paying little tax.

The SPD pledges that the city will not collect more overall from the reformed property tax than before. If the municipal multipliers turn out too high, they are to be lowered.

The property tax has new rules. The SPD promises this: the city will not take in more money than before. This holds for housing and for businesses. If the tax is too high, the city will lower it again.

Revenue neutrality is to apply in three ways: for total revenue, for housing and for commercial property. The platform stresses that the property tax has not been raised since 2011 and so has not pushed up housing costs. The multiplier (Hebesatz) is the factor the city uses to set the level of the tax.

The SPD wants to give families a reduced real estate transfer tax rate of 3.5 percent on their first purchase of a home they live in. This depends on the federal government letting the states set this tax more flexibly.

People who buy a home pay a transfer tax. The SPD wants to lower this tax for families. It applies to the first home they buy to live in. The rate would then be 3.5 percent. First the federal government must change the rules.

The aim is to make home ownership cheaper for young families. The lower rate is also to apply to subsidized apartments and to building on leasehold land (Erbbaurecht). This is meant to make social housing construction more attractive.