The fiscal year has started with significantly higher revenue for the state treasury. The total tax revenue (excluding local taxes) increased by 8.9 percent in January compared to the previous year’s month. This is according to the new monthly report of the Federal Ministry of Finance, which was published on Tuesday morning.
The plus in the first month of the year is thus significantly higher than the 3.8 percent expected for the year as a whole, according to the latest tax forecast.
A continued strong increase in the withholding tax on interest and capital gains, as well as growth in the revenue from the assessed income tax and the wage tax, was offset in January by a decline in the revenue from sales tax, non-assessed income tax and corporate tax.
The revenue from state taxes alone was around 20 percent higher in January than in the previous year. The revenue from the real estate transfer tax was around 1.2 billion euros, slightly higher than last time, which, considering the weak base of the previous year, corresponds to a growth of around 25 percent. The report states that the level of this revenue, which had been slightly recovering due to the improvement in the relevant real estate transactions and prices, seems to be stabilizing.
In January, the wage tax revenue showed a moderate increase of around 2 percent compared to the previous year. The significantly lower increase was mainly due to the law on the tax exemption of the existence minimum for 2024, according to the ministry. This law, which came into effect, increased the basic exemption for 2024 by 180 euros, which was largely offset by the January 2025 tax on wages for December. The development of the labor market is not expected to give a positive impulse to the wage tax revenue, the report further states. The assessed income tax revenue was around 19 percent higher in January than in the previous year.