SSW on finance and taxes

The SSW supports the debt brake but wants to add a rule that allows for investment. It also wants to revive the federal debate about a joint fund to pay off the old debts of the federal government, the states and municipalities.

The state may only take on a little new debt. This rule is called the debt brake. The SSW wants to keep the rule. But there should be an exception for investments. Also, all levels of government should pay off old debts together.

The investment rule is meant to help steadily reduce the repair backlog in state-owned facilities, state roads, digital infrastructure and hospitals. The SSW says it is generally open to concrete proposals for reforming the debt brake. The legacy debt fund would pool interest and repayment for all levels of government and thereby secure better borrowing terms. It would be financed mainly from future additional tax revenue. The platform also stresses that the COVID loans must be repaid starting in 2024 and that spending discipline is needed.

The SSW wants to reduce social insurance contributions for low incomes and raise the basic income tax allowance. The aim is to make work pay more.

People with low pay hand over a lot for social insurance. The SSW wants to lower these payments for them. Their income tax should go down too. A larger part of their pay should be tax-free.

According to the platform, low and middle incomes bear too heavy a load of taxes and social contributions because contributions apply with almost no allowances. Lower contributions are meant to create an incentive to take a job. A higher basic allowance would give low earners additional relief on income tax. This would be paid for by larger contributions from big corporations and the very wealthy; the SSW does not want to add burdens on mid-sized businesses. The tax code as a whole should become simpler.

The SSW wants to introduce a wealth tax, raise tax rates on very high incomes and profits, and tax large inheritances more heavily. It justifies this with a fairer sharing of burdens and the costs of the COVID crisis.

Very rich people should pay more tax. The SSW wants a tax on large fortunes. Very high incomes should also be taxed more. People who inherit a lot should pay more too. Ordinary citizens would get tax-free allowances.

The wealth tax would come with appropriate allowances for citizens. Inheritance tax would rise only for especially large estates; private individuals and small and mid-sized businesses would be spared through generous allowances. Tax rates on extremely high incomes and profits would go up because, in the party's view, the strongest can carry more. The SSW stresses that this is not about envy, since wealth may have been earned through hard work.

The SSW calls for a tax on all securities trades, ideally across the EU. If no European solution is reached, Germany should introduce the tax on its own.

People who trade stocks and other securities should pay a tax on it. Ideally this would apply in the whole EU. If that fails, Germany should bring in the tax alone. Small savers would pay nothing on up to 3,000 euros a year.

The tax would cover all turnover on the securities market. The platform prefers a rule at least at EU level and names a national tax as the fallback. Small savers would get an annual exemption of at least 3,000 euros in turnover.

The SSW wants multinational corporations to pay taxes where they generate their revenue and wants tax loopholes closed. Tax evasion should be pursued more vigorously and tax investigation units given more staff.

Big companies often move profits to countries with low taxes. The SSW wants to stop this. Companies should pay tax where they sell. More experts should uncover tax fraud.

Profit shifting to tax havens should be stopped; the platform considers the resulting losses very large and wants them tackled worldwide. The SSW calls the previous year's international agreement on corporate taxation a step in the right direction but demands that Germany and Schleswig-Holstein also share in the revenue. In the tax offices, trained tax specialists would be moved from general administrative posts to understaffed specialist units such as tax investigation. The party expects this to raise more tax revenue.