Luise Hölscher becomes the federal government’s new state tax secretary. She takes over the office from SPD hand.
Berlin Christian Lindner, FDP leader and soon to be federal finance minister, makes Luise Hölscher the new state tax secretary. The 50-year-old is an absolute expert in tax policy. Hölscher is very familiar with numbers, the economist completed her habilitation on the subject of tax structuring in large companies.
She was a university professor at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, State Secretary for Finance in Hesse and worked as Vice President at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London. She was one of two women on the Executive Committee there. Hölscher comes from the Emsland and grew up on a farm. She studied with a scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation.
The personalities associated with a key political position are interesting because Hölscher has a CDU party book. The Hessian Finance Minister Thomas Schäfer (CDU), who tragically died last year, brought Hölscher into politics.
With this top personnel, Lindner is setting several standards. He relies on professional expertise across party lines. In addition, tax policy in the Federal Council always requires the approval of the federal states. Hölscher’s task will therefore also be to convince the Union-led state governments with factual arguments.
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With Nancy Faeser (SPD) and Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP) there are also two other women from Hesse in the new government. Faeser becomes Minister of the Interior, Stark-Watzinger takes on education and research.
Fight tax evasion
There are enough tasks. In the coalition agreement, for example, it is planned to declare war on tax evasion even more than before. Christian Lindner has made this topic a “personal mission that is close to my heart”. Undeclared work and tax evasion harmed honest taxpayers, “that’s why I want to take action against it in particular,” said Lindner at one of his first announcements as finance minister-designate. Another focus is likely to be the planned super-depreciation, which is intended to mobilize companies’ investments in digitization and climate protection.
The FDP boss wants to convince the Ministry of Finance with an expert on taxes.
(Photo: imago images / photothek)
The ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court on the complete abolition of the solidarity surcharge should also be interesting. How the judge’s verdict will turn out is difficult to assess. In the recent past, the highest German court has caused surprises, for example in its rulings on climate protection and the corona curfews.
Hölscher succeeds Scholz confidante Rolf Bösinger. It is already known that Steffen Saebisch is to coordinate the FDP ministries as State Secretary. The successor to Jörg Kukies, who is moving from the Ministry of Finance to the Chancellery as an economic policy advisor, is still unclear. Lindner also values Werner Gatzer’s expertise. The budget state secretary on the SPD ticket is recognized as an absolute expert across all party lines.
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