According to the constitutional court ruling, the Federal Ministry of Finance expects excessive interest on additional tax claims with charges of well below one billion euros. A spokesman for the SPD-led ministry said on Friday. Another spokesman said at the government press conference in Berlin that the effects cannot yet be reliably estimated because this depends on the specific design of the change in the law. The federal and state governments are affected.
After this week’s ruling, tax authorities will have to lower their interest rates on back tax claims. So far, they have been around six percent a year. Anyone who owes money to the tax office has to pay significantly higher interest on it than on a mortgage or similar loans, which have become significantly cheaper due to the zero interest rate policy of the European Central Bank (ECB). The federal and state governments now have until July 31, 2022 to find a new regulation. The six percent interest rate was introduced in 1961 and has remained unchanged for almost 60 years. The state earns around one billion euros per year through default interest.
A report from mirrors According to the Federal Ministry of Finance fears further burdens of possibly more than 30 billion euros because of high interest rates on company pension provisions. Lawsuits are expected here, according to the magazine. The spokesman for the finance ministry denied the number and pointed out that there was only a judgment on the tax claims.