Finance Minister Christian Lindner believes that further tax relief is necessary for the economy in the coming years. “We will also have to talk about further tax measures with a view to the 2024 budget,” said the FDP leader on Tuesday in the budget debate in the Bundestag. “We have to push the economy, and a visible tax stimulus is also necessary.” Specifically, Lindner called the so-called super-depreciation, a kind of investment premium that companies can use to write off purchases differently for tax purposes.
Lindner also defended his budget for 2023 against criticism from the opposition. This budget reflects the “regular political projects” – separately from this, expenditure to deal with the crises is financed from special funds. In this way, the traffic light government is showing that it wants to return to the principle of only distributing the money that has previously been generated as quickly as possible.
“They are record debt makers,” says the Union
Lindner only pretends to comply with the debt brake in the budget for 2023, said Union faction leader Mathias Middelberg at the beginning of the budget debate. “In fact, since taking office, Minister Lindner, you have actually exhausted every conceivable method of circumventing this debt brake in the Basic Law.” Lindner makes debts like no finance minister before him. “They are record debt makers,” said Middelberg. The budget for the coming year is only formally balanced because loans have already been accumulated in the current year. The housekeeper of the AfD, Peter Boehringer, also spoke of concealment. He considers Lindner’s actions to be unconstitutional.
The budget for 2023 will be discussed department by department in the Bundestag in the coming days before it is voted on on Friday. On Wednesday, the traditional general debate will take place during the deliberations on the budget of the Chancellery. The traffic light government wants to spend around 476 billion euros in the coming year and is making full use of the credit leeway provided by the debt brake. The alternative to debt was tax increases, said Lindner. “I think that’s wrong given the great uncertainty we have,” emphasized the FDP leader. It is “a dangerous macroeconomic experiment to also increase taxes in these times”.