Thick air in the traffic light coalition: In the dispute over tax relief and raising the contribution assessment limits, the FDP and the Greens are clashing.
The traffic light partners Greens and FDP are accusing each other of blocking two legislative proposals that were actually supposed to take shape this week: raising the contribution assessment limits in social insurance and tax relief to compensate for the cold progression in the so-called Tax Development Act.
The parliamentary managing director of the FDP, Johannes Vogel, said on Tuesday in Berlin: “In our opinion, the tax development law, which is intended to relieve the burden on people, is ready and can be processed by the Bundestag.” The fact that this didn’t happen this week is “solely because the Green group objected to the setting up of the second and third readings.”
The Greens deny that they are blocking the law. “We believe that economic impulses that are also linked to tax issues are right and good,” said Green party leader Britta Haßelmann. The bill will come to the cabinet on Wednesday and is expected to be approved there. “Once we have the report, the figures, data, facts and basis for discussion here in Parliament, we will certainly decide on this very quickly.” From a Green perspective, however, this means: Because of the short deadline, it will probably not be this week, but rather in the next week of the meeting at the beginning of November.
The Greens, in turn, are now accusing the FDP of blocking on another issue: the contribution assessment limit. There has been a dispute there for weeks over a regulation from Hubertus Heil‘s (SPD) Ministry of Labor. The contribution assessment limit regulates the salary level up to which social security contributions must be paid. The assessment limit is adjusted every year to reflect wage developments.
Heil’s draft now provides for the contribution assessment limit to be raised significantly. This would mean that higher earners would have more deducted from their gross salary for social security funds. The FDP wants to mitigate this additional burden and also criticizes the calculation method in general. The increases contradicted the relief provided by the traffic light growth initiative, was the argument from the Ministry of Finance, which the “Handelsblatt” reported on at the end of September.
But the Greens now see time running out. It is “absolutely necessary” to pass the regulation on the contribution assessment limit in the cabinet this week, said parliamentary group leader Haßelmann. The appraisal group will meet soon, “there must be clarity about this on November 1st.”
The Greens fear that low-income earners will otherwise be placed under a greater burden. The regulation has been fought over for weeks, “so that lower and middle incomes don’t end up having to expect higher contributions,” said Haßelmann. “That’s why it’s so important and necessary that Finance Minister Christian Lindner finally gives up blocking the regulation on the contribution assessment limit.”
FDP man Vogel defended Lindner’s actions. He understands that the Finance Minister initially stopped raising the contribution assessment limits. Otherwise this greater burden would be increased without at the same time providing tax relief.
“It doesn’t work that way,” said Vogel. “If Robert Habeck doesn’t want to go down in the history books as recession minister, then he should work to dissolve the blockade of the Green faction.”