Are solos making a comeback because of the Ukraine war?

Berlin Just mothballed, it’s already being brought out again: the solidarity surcharge. In fact, since last year around 90 percent of Germans no longer pay the surcharge on their income tax. But because of the Ukraine war, climate change and investment backlog, there are considerations of reviving the solos quickly.

The head of the German tax union, Thomas Eigenthaler, says that the financial burden on the federal government is increasing rapidly every day due to all the crises. These costs “cannot be borne without a solidarity update”.

Moritz Kraemer, chief economist at Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW), has a similar opinion. He is campaigning for a new solidarity surcharge because of the war in Ukraine and the climate crisis. Most recently, after German unity, the country had such “Herculean tasks” ahead of it, said Kraemer. And that’s when solos were introduced.

Actually, the traffic light in tax policy wanted to manage the standstill. But the proclaimed “turn of the era” is shaking many old certainties. The discussion about the financing of the crises is also slowly gaining momentum.