(new: Statements by Lindner)
BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – There is a dispute in the traffic light coalition about which part of their crisis profits oil and gas companies should pay to the state. The Ministry of Finance is proposing the minimum rate of 33 percent prescribed by European law, as ministry circles announced on Wednesday. The Greens think that’s not enough, as party leaders Ricarda Lang and Omid Nouripour told the Welt television station.
“If you look at how high the profits are that were made, the excess profits that are not due to clever investment decisions, but actually to this war, then in the end the amount of the tax must also do justice to it,” emphasized Lang . For tactical reasons, Nouripour did not want to publicly name a precise demand.
In the Ministry of Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP), on the other hand, one sees “considerable constitutional risks” in view of the contribution to the crisis. “The project does not fit into our national tax system,” it said from ministry circles.
At the “Economic Summit” of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” in Berlin, Lindner himself referred to the requirements of European law. If Germany does not want to take on infringement proceedings, European law must be implemented. There are few companies. “I’ll say quite frankly: This requirement from European law leads us on thin ice in national tax law.”
Lindner is not talking about an “excess profit tax”. In an interview with RTL/ntv-Interview, he said that an “excess profit tax” was associated with uncertainties in tax law, and that one could not define excess profits. Instead, European law must be implemented with the EU solidarity contribution. “We implement this within the framework of what our German tax law makes possible, very narrowly limited to a few companies, for example in the petroleum and refinery sectors. And that’s not the excess profit tax that has been spoken of occasionally.”
In ministry circles it was said that the coalition had agreed on a moratorium on stress for citizens and companies. Therefore, the delivery should be designed as gently as possible. Only a low double-digit number of companies should be affected and the tax rate should be limited to a minimum of 33 percent. The revenue will be around one billion euros. In addition, the levy is not linked to a company’s sales, but to profits, which in 2022 and 2023 will be significantly higher than the average for the years 2018 to 2021.
The EU energy ministers had decided that energy companies with high income should be asked to pay in the crisis in order to relieve private households. They should pay part of their profits from the crisis to the state./tam/DP/nas
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