Biontech billions become negative business for Rhineland-Palatinate

Berlin Doris Ahnen (SPD) was very happy. At the beginning of February, the Rhineland-Palatinate Minister of Finance announced that her state closed 2021 with a budget surplus of 2.3 billion euros.

She cited “extraordinarily pleasing special effects” as the reason. Even if Ahnen was not allowed to say it as finance minister, it was clear what she meant: the multi-billion tax payments from the Mainz-based company Biontech.

With the Biontech tax booster, the traditionally financially weak Rhineland-Palatinate became a donor country for the first time in the financial equalization of the states. For ancestors, however, this is not only a reason for joy.

Because when the federal-state financial equalization is settled, Rhineland-Palatinate will “have to make high repayments with a time delay”.

It is now becoming apparent that the Biontech billions for the state budget are even likely to turn into negative business. This is the result of financial experts from Baden-Württemberg and Hesse, who calculated the effects of the Biontech special effect and published their results in the trade journal “Wirtschaftsdienst”.