BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – Of the planned 300 euros energy price flat rate, only around 180 euros will remain for top earners according to calculations by the taxpayers’ association. Anyone who pays the tax rate for the wealthy because of their high income gets even less out of it, as the Association for the German Press Agency calculated. Only employees whose taxable income remains below the basic tax allowance of around 10,000 euros benefit from the full amount.
“By the way, it would have been a real relief if the energy price flat rate were tax-free,” emphasized the President of the Taxpayers’ Association, Reiner Holznagel. Here, too, the traffic light government made mistakes in communication and aroused false expectations. “Even pensioners and the self-employed do not receive any real subsidy,” criticized Holznagel.
The one-time gross energy price of 300 euros is intended to benefit every employed person who is subject to income tax and is classified in tax brackets 1 to 5. It is subject to income tax. The money is to be paid out by the employer as a salary subsidy, for the self-employed the advance tax payment will be reduced instead.
According to the calculations of the association, a single person with tax class 1 and an annual salary of 72,000 euros will end up with an energy price flat rate of 181.80 euros. The top tax rate applies to him, and the flat rate suddenly means that the solidarity surcharge also applies. A married employee with one child, tax bracket 4 and an annual salary of EUR 72,000 receives a flat rate of EUR 184.34.
With a medium salary and consequently lower income tax rate, there is a little more left. For example, a married employee with a child, tax class 4 and an annual salary of EUR 45,000 would receive an energy price flat rate of EUR 216.33. With an annual salary of 15,000 euros, the same employee would receive 248.83 euros. If he is registered in tax class 3, he remains under the basic allowance, so he does not have to pay any taxes and is paid the full lump sum.
Similar calculations by the German Economic Institute (IW) for the “Welt am Sonntag” refer to households and also consider further planned relief. According to this, the federal government’s package of measures against high energy prices relieves households by up to 825 euros. “Low and normal earners are relieved to a greater extent. Top earners pay a larger proportion of the taxable surcharge back to the state via income tax,” said IW tax expert Tobias Hentze. For families with two children in which both parents work, the relief is between 348 euros and 825 euros.
According to the sample calculation, the biggest beneficiaries are families with a gross household income of 35,000 euros per year. According to IW calculations, 457 euros remain after taxes of the energy price lump sum paid to both spouses totaling 600 euros. In addition, there is a tax-free family bonus of 100 euros for each of the two children. That makes a total of 657 euros. If they both drive to work, the tax burden on petrol is also reduced for three months. That means another relief of 168 euros. In contrast, families with two children but no car and an annual gross income of 150,000 euros receive a comparatively low 348 euros.
For singles with a gross annual income of more than 75,000 euros, 159 euros remain of the one-off 300 euros energy price flat rate. Because of the higher marginal tax rate, this is 61 euros less than for a single person with a gross income of 25,000 euros./tam/hgo/DP/zb