The state government wants to accommodate smaller companies and the self-employed who are supposed to reimburse Corona emergency aid in whole or in part. “No one should get into economic difficulties by repaying too much aid,” said Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (free voters) on Tuesday after the cabinet meeting. Many smaller traders, such as hairdressers and the self-employed, are “overwhelmed” in view of the current economic situation with the repayment of overpaid Corona emergency aid,” said Aiwanger.
According to the decision that the cabinet has now taken, single self-employed people do not have to repay the emergency aid they received if their existence would be threatened – and their operating profit after tax is less than 25,000 euros. For everyone who has maintenance obligations, the threshold is 30,000 euros. According to the cabinet decision, Bavaria is “exploiting its legal leeway in favor of those affected”. At the same time, “a fair individual assessment based on a nationwide standard” is possible. What was previously and continues to be the case: Anyone who cannot repay the excess aid received by June 30th for economic reasons can take advantage of an installment payment of up to 24 months. Installment payments can be requested via an online platform at the beginning of June at the latest.
Even before a solution was found in the federal government, the Free State had put together a package for the months of March to May 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic, which was then similarly adopted throughout Germany. The Corona aid should cushion pandemic losses unbureaucratically. A total of 2.2 billion euros were paid out in Bavaria, mostly financed by the federal government, in line with the motto “Whatever it takes” issued by Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU). What is necessary to support the economy will also be done, Söder promised at the time. Most recently, however, the repayment demands had triggered considerable unrest.
At that time, the aid was granted on the basis of a forecast made when the application was made. Because of the lockdown measures, it was about liabilities “from the commercial material and financial expenses”, not about lost sales and profits. The 260,000 entrepreneurs in Bavaria who applied for emergency corona aid received the first notifications last year. You should prove that you received the money correctly at the time. The reason given was that a “significant number” of recipients “received too high aid payments in retrospect”. Also because of the proper handling of tax funds, the recipients of the aid have been informed of their obligation to check the forecasts they have submitted.
From the outset, the guidelines stipulated that the aid had to be repaid if the liquidity bottleneck turned out to be smaller than expected. According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, a good 30,000 recipients of emergency aid had jointly transferred around 230 million euros before the start of the checks. Since then, 20,000 people and 132 million euros have been added.