The German federal government is reportedly exploring direct relief for citizens amid soaring fuel costs. According to “Handelsblatt”, sourced from government insiders, officials are considering cutting the vehicle tax for car owners-an approach that would, for the first time, enable the state to transfer money directly into individual bank accounts.
The proposal aims to offset high petrol and diesel prices by reducing the annual car tax. However, such a reduction would mainly benefit owners of large vehicles, so the plan is to issue a lump‑sum premium to motorists via a new “direct‑payment mechanism”. This mechanism would use the private account details of every citizen to distribute funds-a first in Germany’s history.
The direct‑payment system was originally created to channel CO₂‑pricing revenues (intended as “climate money”) back to the public. Although those funds were never released, the infrastructure is now in place and could potentially be applied to the car‑tax reduction. Politically, the decision to use this mechanism remains pending.