It is a number that symbolizes how much Germany is also an automotive state: 63 percent of all new cars were registered as commercial last year. Half of that ended up in commercial fleet operations, commonly known as: mostly as a company car. A considerable number that is wanted: The German state supports the purchase and use of company cars with tax, also for the benefit of the domestic auto industry.
Now the Agora Verkehrswende think tank, together with the Öko-Institut, has calculated the effects of this automotive cycle in detail and has come to a clear result: “The current structure of company car taxation thwarted efforts to achieve a socially balanced turnaround in traffic.” The new federal government should urgently tackle a complete change, for reasons of climate protection, according to the authors, but also for reasons of social justice. In any case, it is not enough to “freshen up this regulation a bit ecologically”, says Agora director Christian Hochfeld. The focus here is primarily on the private use of company cars: the tax rebates in this area alone cost the state between three and six billion euros per year.
The core of the regulation is that owners of company cars only have to pay one percent of the list price per month. Even lower tax rates apply to electrified vehicles – between 0.25 and 0.5 percent. In one of the example of the research institutes, the unmarried, childless Mr. Mustermann receives a gross salary of 71,000 euros – and is faced with the question: organize a company car or buy a private car (a diesel Audi model Q5 is included in the bill) and the work trips (4000 km per year ) settle by mileage? The private car would clearly be a disadvantage for him. Regardless of whether he bills the private part (16,000 km per year) using the driver’s log or using the list price method: the company car is more lucrative – also for the employer, who can deduct the purchase and operation from tax, which is usually cheaper than the wage costs . According to the researchers, if the contract is drawn up accordingly, a joint financial benefit for employers and employees of more than EUR 3,000 per year can be achieved.
These are advantages that the tax community grants above all to those who already earn well or very well anyway. Expressed in the figures from Agora and Öko-Institut: around half of the money goes to a fifth of the households with the highest incomes, while the households in the lower half of the income only get around a fifth of the money. And, according to the researchers’ criticism: the subsidized vehicles are particularly harmful to the climate, because they have a significantly higher engine output (160 hp) on average than privately registered cars (115 hp) and drive around 30,000 kilometers, twice as much per year. Paradoxically, the advantage tends to increase with the size, weight and consumption of the vehicle. A climate control effect through the extra advantages for e-cars is also not discernible: private people register twice as many battery cars compared to commercial users.
All in all, “the social and ecological imbalance” in company car taxation is particularly pronounced in this country, according to the researchers, who consider the solutions from Great Britain and Belgium to be more sensible: These countries differentiate when measuring the monetary benefit according to CO2 emissions. The higher the emissions, the higher the tax.