Berlin The CDU wants to modernize Germany as a location with a reform of the tax system and tax companies regardless of their company form in the future.
“We are creating corporate tax law that is independent of the legal form of the company”: the party leadership around Friedrich Merz agreed on this wording for the new basic program at their closed conference last week. However, there were no formal decisions at the meeting in Cadenabbia, Italy.
“We need an Agenda 2030 – for the entire economy,” said the head of the program commission, party vice Carsten Linnemann, on Monday. A year ago, under his leadership, the party began the fundamental debate about a reorganization of the content.
According to Linnemann, the party should focus on the 2025 election year and provide answers to the foreseeable problems: Baby boomers will have retired, which means that new answers to old-age provision are needed. Specialists from abroad are needed because there is a lack of employees not only in schools, day care centers and in nursing.
The location must be strengthened in order to prevent deindustrialization and also to prevent the gap between rich and poor from widening in the face of inflation. Geopolitically, Germany and Europe must no longer be dependent on individual states such as China.
CDU discussed 191 theses at the closed conference
It was 191 theses that party leader Friedrich Merz discussed with his deputies and the chairmen of the ten specialist commissions from Thursday to Saturday in the conference center of the party-affiliated Konrad Adenauer Foundation on Lake Como. The Villa La Collina was once the summer residence of Konrad Adenauer (CDU), the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.
>> Read here: The CDU follows in the footsteps of Konrad Adenauer
It was said that there were “intense discussions”. The papers that the commissions have drawn up so far have been checked for weaknesses, some have been discarded and others have been referred to new working groups.
On the first day, the group discussed from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m., on the following day with smaller breaks from 8 a.m. to 12.30 a.m. and on the final day from 8 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. The atmosphere was “labor-intensive, incredibly concentrated,” reported participants. Only a game of Boccia was possible at the end – that was Adenauer’s favorite sport. There was no time for more free time.
The group discussed almost three hours just on the paper “Prosperity and Social Market Economy” that had become known in advance. The commission is headed by the deputy parliamentary group leader of the CDU Jens Spahn. She had considered higher taxes for people with very high incomes and a flat tax on inheritances.
This had led to heated debates. The chairwoman of the Economic Council of the CDU, Astrid Hamker, rejected the plans and declared that the state had an expenditure problem, not an income problem. “Tax increases do not fit the DNA of the CDU,” she told the Handelsblatt. “We demand tax cuts.”
CDU wants higher taxes for income millionaires
There had been “changes” to the drafts, it said after the meeting in Italy. It should be stipulated that business assets do not have to be taxed – not even in the case of inheritances. The idea of a “flat tax” with a broad assessment limit and a low tax rate has now been “burned out”, it said.
In the case of income tax, however, the plan is to flatten the tax curve in the middle, abolish the solidarity surcharge and tax millionaires more heavily.
When asked, Commission chief Spahn justified the planned reform: “Our proposal provides for massive relief: we want to noticeably reduce taxes on profits that remain in the company, including for partnerships,” he told the Handelsblatt.
The CDU met in Konrad Adenauer’s summer residence.
(Photo: imago/Reiner Zensen)
The broad middle of society will be relieved by up to 30 billion euros, he explained. “If, in this overall concept, millionaires do not benefit from these reliefs for their private income, that is our approach to tax justice.”
Linnemann would like a “pension promise for the younger generation”
The party is still discussing relieving companies of social security contributions. However, the idea of raising sales tax in return does not seem to find a majority. This would put a disproportionate burden on low earners, it said.
In addition to a new industrial policy, agriculture and European integration with the continued strong position of the nation states, there were also controversial debates on the question of compulsory old-age provision. It should be designed in such a way that low earners in particular benefit.
>> Read here: Citizens with this income finance half the state
It is unclear how this obligation is to take place: as part of company pension schemes or funded as a new state-defined pension product.
Some points in the program of the CDU are still open.
(Photo: IMAGO/Chris Emil Janssen)
The CDU is also pursuing the goal of creating “a society of owners”, as stated in the prosperity paper. This also includes home ownership. In addition, people of retirement age should be able to earn additional income tax-free.
“I would like to make a new pension promise for the younger generation,” said the head of the program commission, Linnemann. Someone who has worked all his life should have more than someone who has not worked when they retire.
>> Read here: How to properly plan for retirement
The CDU is meeting in Berlin on June 17 for a convention at which it intends to discuss the basic program with the members. In autumn, the commissions are to meet one last time and discuss before the federal executive board is supposed to adopt a formulated program in January, which will then advise the party base for three months.
It should then be decided in Berlin at the beginning of May. The question of who will lead the party in the federal election campaign will be decided after the European elections in late summer 2024.
More: The new conflict between the CDU and the right fringe