As of today, the salary goes solely into the pocket of the employee – according to the calculation of the taxpayers’ association.
(Photo: IMAGO/photo booth)
Berlin Today, Wednesday at 11:28 a.m., the time has come: From then on, the citizens work – purely mathematically – for their own wallets. At least that is the calculation of the taxpayers’ association, which is proclaiming the taxpayers’ commemoration day on July 13 this year.
With the action, the taxpayer lobby wants to draw attention to what they consider to be an excessive burden on citizens. The later the memorial day, the higher the duties and taxes. However, there is also criticism of the calculation.
The taxpayers’ association calculates the burden on the basis of representative household surveys by the Federal Statistical Office. The more than 22 million employee households (workers, employees and civil servants) consist of an average of 2.2 people. According to calculations by the taxpayers’ association, the total income of the representative household is EUR 6,474 per month this year.
In a second step, the association calculates the transfers to the state. The representative household therefore pays 774 euros in income tax and a total of 2038 euros in social security contributions. There are also indirect taxes, such as sales tax, property tax or motor vehicle tax. These add up to 624 euros per month.
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The total burden for the average household is 3432 euros. This results in a rate of 53.0 percent and arithmetically a taxpayer commemoration day on July 13th.
Singles are charged more
The taxpayers’ association has also differentiated the burden according to household types. The burden is higher for workers who live alone: on average, they are burdened with 53.9 percent – their taxpayer memorial day does not fall until July 16th. For multi-person households it was already on July 12th – here the burden rate is 52.8 percent.
According to the taxpayers’ association, the average burden has risen by 0.1 percentage points compared to the previous year. The price increases and thus a higher burden of sales tax are cited as the reason. There are also smaller effects: The contribution rate for childless people in long-term care insurance has risen by 0.1 percentage points. Compared to the previous year, the CO2 taxes on motor and heating fuels have also been increased.
>> Read here: Taxes and duties: Germany is runner-up in the world
On the other hand, there were also reliefs. These include the energy price lump sum, the reduction of the EEG surcharge and the increase in the employee lump sum.
For Reiner Holznagel, President of the Taxpayers’ Association, the calculations show that there is a need to relieve the burden on citizens. “The political goal must be to push the burden rate below the 50 percent mark,” he said. Among other things, he calls for an income tax reform and the reduction of cold progression, i.e. the creeping tax increases through the interaction of wage increases and inflation.
criticism of the critics
In the past, the calculations for the taxpayer memorial day have been repeatedly criticized. For example, Stefan Bach from the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) regularly complains that social security contributions are also taken into account. However, these payments are offset by benefits, for example in pension insurance.
Holznagel also says that taxes and duties are used to finance important services for citizens. “Of course, they didn’t work in vain in the first half of the year – the majority of the tax and contribution payments flow back directly or indirectly to the citizens in the form of state benefits,” said the President of the Taxpayers’ Association.
At the same time, however, the taxpayer commemoration day reveals that more than half of the income generated by employees is still being redistributed and administered by the state, says Holznagel. If more than half of personal income is covered by taxes and duties, this contradicts the “idea of fairness”. With the commemoration day, the intention is to initiate a discussion as to whether the burden on citizens is justified and whether the numerous services and the systems themselves are efficient.
More: Up to 672 euros less: How inflation eats up salary growth