finance
Kretschmann criticizes the planned reduction in parental allowance
Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann comments on the planned reduction in parental allowance. photo
© Bernd Weißbrod/dpa
Lowering the income limit for parental allowance is highly controversial. Baden-Württemberg’s prime minister doesn’t think much of the cut either: “No one gets rich from parental allowance.”
Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann sees the planned cancellation of the Parental allowance for citizens with high incomes critical. “First of all, parental allowance is not a classic social benefit,” said the Green politician of the German Press Agency in Stuttgart. “The point is that the compatibility of family and work is better achieved and that everyone participates in it and that we break up the classic role model in which it is mainly women who do the educational work.”
So far, parental allowance has been given to couples whose joint taxable income is less than 300,000 euros. Because of the savings requirements of Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) for the federal budget for 2024, Family Minister Lisa Paus wants to lower the limit to 150,000 euros.
“Of course 150,000 euros is a large sum,” admitted Kretschmann. It is also clear that savings must be made where it is most manageable. “But that must then apply to all areas,” said the head of government. “No one gets rich from parental allowance. Parental allowance is a contribution to guaranteeing a certain autonomy for the partner who takes care of the child. That’s why I see this cut critically.”
Kretschmann is critical of spouse splitting
SPD federal leader Lars Klingbeil had proposed as an alternative to reducing parental allowances to abolish spouse splitting for new marriages – but FDP leader Christian Lindner had rejected this. With spouse splitting, the joint income of a couple is halved, the income tax due is calculated and the tax liability is then doubled. This is particularly useful for couples where one earns a lot and the other a little.
Kretschmann is critical of the marriage splitting, but considers a debate about it to be wrong at this point in time. “I’m very open to changing that. But we shouldn’t start any conflict debates in these times, although there is no foreseeable consensus in the federal government – I don’t think that makes sense,” he said. An abolition of the spouse splitting is also not in the coalition agreement of the traffic light government.
“You have to change the spouse splitting. We Greens have always made proposals for this,” said the Prime Minister. “But that’s not easy, because for people who have chosen this way of life, these are very serious interventions. They would then have to pay significantly more taxes.” In this context, Kretschmann also criticized the fact that childless couples now benefit from splitting. “We should focus more on the children.”