Cabinet decision: Tax relief should make companies invest

With tax relief, the federal government wants to ensure that the economy invests more and comes out of the crisis. For this purpose, the cabinet in Berlin decided a billion -dollar package with extended depreciation options for machines and electric vehicles that should encourage companies to invest.

“We are now boosting the economy with our growth booster. We secure jobs and bring Germany back to growth,” said finance minister Lars Klingbeil. After four weeks in office, the Vice Chancellor presents his first major law.

For the black and red coalition, the cranking of the weak economy is one of the most urgent topics. Because Germany threatens to stay without growth for the third year in a row. After the cabinet decision, the Bundestag is therefore advising on the package for the first time this week. According to the SPD, the goal is a decision to the Bundestag and the Federal Council before the summer break in mid -July.

Companies should be able to copy their expenses for machines and devices in the current and in the next two years degressively from the tax – with up to 30 percent. This reduces the accounting profit and thus the tax burden. With degressive instead of linear depreciation, a larger part of the investments can be used for tax -reducing – and later less. The measure thus relieves especially in the immediate phase after an investment.

Therefore, the tax expert of the Institute of German Business Cologne, Tobias Hentze: “It remains a temporary effect. The tax burden returns in the following years – this is not a structural relief.”

Several industry associations, such as the energy industry and the electrical industry, have already warned additional relief. For example, cheaper electricity prices are important.

Running corporation tax

When the so -called booster has expired, corporation tax should gradually decrease from 2028 – from the current 15 percent to 10 percent in 2032. This should give companies long -term planning security and upgrade Germany. Because experts have long considered the tax burden of German companies to be too high and not competitive. From 2032, the total tax burden for companies should then be almost 25 percent – instead of currently almost 30 percent.

In addition, the tax rate for profits that are not released should be reduced, but remain in the company – where they are available for investments. Tax research funding is also to be expanded so that companies invest more in research and development.

However, the left in the Bundestag fears that lower company taxes hardly trigger additional investments. Recently, companies had “bunkered money” in such situations, explained the financial politician Christian Görke.

Buying a pure electric car should be more attractive for companies. Here too, a degressive depreciation should apply: If you buy a new company-used electric car, you could then write down 75 percent of the costs in the purchase year.

In the following year, 10 percent could then be stopped, 5 percent in the second and third year, 3 percent in the fourth year and 2 percent in the fifth year in the fifth year. The special regulation should apply to purchases after June 30th and before January 1, 2028.

According to the draft law, the state, the federal states and municipalities – are avoided by the package by 2029 income of almost 46 billion euros (“full annual impact”). The volume is growing over the years: this year the relief for companies will be estimated at 2.5 billion euros, and in 2028 at 12 billion euros.

Especially in the early years, when the super depreciation works, the municipalities have to bear a disproportionately large part of the costs – they avoid tax revenues of around 11 billion euros from 2025 to 2028. There could therefore be resistance to the plans in the Federal Council.

Thuringia’s Prime Minister Mario Voigt already indicated: “An investment booster makes sense-but if you order, you also have to pay,” the CDU politician told Germany. Similarly his SPD colleague Alexander Schweitzer from Rhineland-Palatinate: The content of the project was correct, he told Deutschlandfunk. “But it shouldn’t be that it only goes on the lid of the countries and municipalities.”

The Verdi union asked the federal government to fully take over the foreseeable tax evaporation of the municipalities. Otherwise, the financial emergency of many cities and municipalities would be significantly tightened.