Bundestag passes comprehensive tax changes for 2023

On Friday, the Bundestag passed the annual tax law with extensive tax changes. There are reliefs, for example, for solar systems, for employees and in housing construction. Mineral oil companies are to make a temporary contribution to the "energy crisis". A transfer of real estate assets through inheritance and gifts could become more expensive. The Federal Council still has to approve the law.

Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) wrote on Twitter that the annual tax law contained a few "drops of bitterness", but mostly good news. He spoke of a tax reduction through higher flat rates and named an extended tax exemption for photovoltaics and a tax simplification for home office.

Lindner had referred to the "energy crisis contribution" of mineral oil companies to European legal requirements that Germany had to implement. He is not talking about an “excess profit tax”, which he had long rejected.

The financial policy spokeswoman for the Greens parliamentary group, Katharina Beck, explained that the participation of oil companies with their excess profits in the costs of the crisis was an "important sign" of justice and solidarity: "Six months ago, nobody would have believed that we would decide this as a traffic light .”

In the case of inheritance and gift tax, the Union in particular had already warned against an increase through the back door. Specifically, against the background of a decision by the Federal Constitutional Court, it is about an adjustment in the valuation of real estate. As a result, heirs to larger assets could face higher costs from January 1, 2023.

Bavaria has already advocated an increase in tax allowances in the Bundesrat. The CSU financial politician Sebastian Brehm accused the FDP of "open election fraud". The party promised there would be no tax increases.

On the last day of its penultimate week of sessions this year, the Bundestag also passed further laws:

In many hospitals, the situation has not only been explosive since Corona - thanks to a legislative package on hospitals, there should now be more money for child care, fewer unnecessary overnight stays in hospitals and relief for nursing staff.

The new regulations aim, among other things, to improve the working conditions of the often heavily stressed nursing staff. A new tool for assessing personnel is to be used for this purpose – based on calculated ideal staffing for the stations. A gradual introduction is planned. In addition, certain clinical examinations should in future be possible as day treatment without an overnight stay.

The Federal Government wants to place a stronger focus on the quality of child day care. The federal government is making almost four billion euros available to the federal states for this purpose over the next two years. In return, they should in future concentrate on "fields of action of primary importance" that are intended to improve the quality of care. These include promoting early childhood education, good nutrition and language development.

In order to support the latter quality point, the federal government will continue to finance the "Language Daycare Centers" funding program until the summer of next year. Then the federal states should continue to finance the program according to the will of Family Minister Lisa Paus (Greens). The federal funding was originally supposed to expire at the end of the year - which had annoyed many states and especially the CDU and CSU.

"Kick-off Politics" is WELT's daily news podcast. The most important topic analyzed by WELT editors and the dates of the day. Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music or directly via RSS feed.