The debate about a possible abolition of spouse splitting goes into another round: Finance Minister Lindner excludes the step until 2025 – Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Weil, on the other hand, is in favor of an early end.
According to his own spending, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner rules out the abolition of spouse splitting in the current election period. “That will not happen in this election period of the German Bundestag,” said Lindner in an interview with the BR to corresponding demands of the coalition partners SPD and Greens. Abolition was “neither agreed upon in the coalition nor fair for the taxpayers”.
When he said no to the abolition of the marriage splitting, Lindner said that the “working middle” in Germany was already bearing a heavy burden and should not be burdened any further. He sees moves to abolish spouse splitting “already as an election campaign tune for the year 2025”.
Lindner thus reinforced his party’s resistance. His house had calculated last week that the abolition would burden families and couples with around 25 billion euros annually. When asked, it admitted that this number refers to existing marriages – which Klingbeil did not mean.
Party leaders of the SPD and Greens for abolition
With spouse splitting, the income of both spouses is added together and then halved. For this value, income tax is calculated, and then doubled – this is the tax burden of the married couple. Spouse splitting is particularly advantageous for couples in which one partner earns a lot and the other little – for example if only the man goes to work and the woman takes care of the family and house.
Most recently, SPD leader Lars Klingbeil called for future married couples to be abolished, and Green Party leader Ricarda Lang then reiterated her party’s support for the project.
“Attitude has changed radically”
Support for the initiative is now also coming from Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil. “The marriage splitting from the Adenauer period has the image in mind that the woman is at home and takes care of home, stove and child, while the man procures the family income. This attitude has changed radically,” said SPD politicians.
Women and men should have equal rights in work and family, Weil said. There are also many partnerships that are extremely stable but do not require a marriage certificate. “Therefore, the question is justified as to whether this tax regulation is still up to date.” The head of government described it as sensible that Klingbeil expressly referred his initiative only to new marriages. “That doesn’t offend the couples who have adjusted to it,” Weil said.