Federal debt repayment account: around 75,000 euros paid in in 2024

The federal government is currently in debt with around 1.6 trillion euros, despite the debt brake. An instrument could promise relief, but is rarely used. Every citizen can help reduce the federal government’s mountain of debt. The federal government’s debt repayment account has been in place since 2006. If you want, you can transfer any amount there, which will be used to pay off the liabilities.

Last year there were 566 deposits recorded into this account star learned from the Federal Ministry of Finance. The total of all deposits in 2024 was 74,455.87 euros, around 32,000 euros less than in 2023 – and not even a drop in the ocean.

According to a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of Finance, one person alone transferred 10,000 euros to the federal government – the largest single amount of the past year. The lowest amount received was one cent. This also flowed into the federal treasury – or as the ministry says: “The payments were collected in the federal budget in section 32 – federal debt – and are to be used for a specific purpose to repay debts in accordance with budget note No. 2.”

The Ministry of Finance can of course say little about the motivation of citizens to voluntarily transfer money to the federal government – but it can say little about the total amount that has ended up there since the account was set up 19 years ago: around 1.6 million euros. If things continued at this rate, the federal government would be debt-free in around 22 million years.

It is unlikely that significantly more money will enter the account in the future – nor is it the explicit goal of the federal government. The government explained in 2019 that they do not expect such contributions “and do not strive to encourage the population to make such payments”: “The state is not dependent on donations to finance the federal budget, and it should not create this impression by actively promoting Arrange donations.”