The German finance minister is committed to reducing taxes from 2023 onwards

BERLIN (Reuters) – The new German government will provide at least € 30 billion ($ 34.1 billion) to people and businesses worth 30 billion euros ($ 34.1 billion) in this legislature, Finance Minister Christian Lindner said on Sunday.

“We will alleviate small and medium-sized businesses and individuals by significantly more than € 30 billion,” Lindner told Bild am Sonntag.

Emphasizing that the previous government under Chancellor Angela Merkel had collected the 2022 budget, Lindner said her draft for 2023 will include pension insurance contributions and the end of the electricity price surcharge.

Meanwhile, Lindner, the fiscally discreet leader of the Free Democrats (FDP), had asked his cabinet colleagues to review their ministry spending projects.

“We need to return to good public finances. We have a responsibility to the younger generation,” he said.

Lindner said one way to save money would be to cancel the construction of a new government terminal at Berlin’s BER airport, which would cost 50 million euros. He suggested that a temporary building could be used permanently.

The minister is also planning a tax bill to help companies deal with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, including allowing them to offset losses in 2022 and 2023 with profits from previous years.

In the wake of the pandemic, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s governing coalition agreed to use an emergency clause in the constitution for the third year in a row in 2022 to suspend debt limits and allow for a new € 100,000 billion in debt.

From 2023 onwards, the coalition wants to return to the rule of the debt brake in the constitution, which limits new debt to a small part of economic output.

($ 1 = $ 0.8797)