In the future, taxpayers should pay less interest on additional payments, but also receive less interest on refunds from the tax office. The cabinet decided on Wednesday to cut interest rates to 0.15 percent per month retroactively to January 1, 2019. This means that instead of the previous six percent, only 1.8 percent interest is charged per year. An evaluation clause should also ensure that the interest rate remains appropriate in the future. Before it can come into force, the Bundestag must approve it. There are interest rates for income tax, corporation tax, property tax, sales tax and trade tax. They become due if an additional tax payment or refund is delayed by more than 15 months. In the first case, the Treasury benefits, in the second, the taxpayer. The Federal Constitutional Court had declared interest rates of six percent to be unconstitutional.
Tax office – 1.8 percent as tax interest – economy
