Germany’s Social Association (SoVD) welcomes the proposal by the Green’s Chancellor candidate Robert Habeck to tax capital gains with social insurance contributions in the future.
“From a distributional point of view, this is a very good proposal – and an old SoVD demand. Why should only wages and salaries be taxed for these tasks? That’s simply unfair” said SoVD Chairwoman Michaela Engelmeier to the Funke Media Group’s newspapers (Tuesday editions).
For the financing of health insurance, it is necessary to include not only earned income but also other income, such as from rentals, leases, or capital, Engelmeier emphasized. The increasingly high additional premiums are burdening low and medium incomes in particular. “We are convinced that the challenges in the healthcare sector are a societal task as a whole. Therefore, only solidarically would be to tax contributions on capital gains” Engelmeier added.
Habeck had criticized on Sunday evening that capital gains have so far been exempt from social insurance contributions. It doesn’t seem right to him that work is taxed more heavily than income from capital investments. “And that’s why we propose making these income sources social insurance liable” Habeck said. If the contribution base of the statutory health insurance is expanded in this way, this would be “a step towards more solidarity within the system” he added.