The FDP plans to reduce the remaining solidarity surcharge by 2.5 percent in the coming year and completely eliminate it in 2027. This is revealed by a draft law that the Liberals will submit to the Bundestag on this Thursday and which the “Rheinische Post” (Thursday edition) reports on.
“With this draft law, we are presenting a fiscally responsible plan for a step-by-step abolition of the solidarity surcharge. We want to reduce the Soli by 2.5 percent next year and completely eliminate it in 2027” said FDP faction leader Christian Dürr to the newspaper. “It was a political promise of the 1990s that this special levy would be abolished if it lost its purpose. So far, nothing has happened – and that’s because the SPD and the Greens have no interest in relieving the middle class” Dürr said.
“That’s the key point: the Soli has long become a tax on entrepreneurship. If we want to prevent talent and clever heads from leaving, we must quickly ensure relief within the framework of the economic transition. Abolishing the Soli is the best option, as it could be quickly decided in the Bundestag without the consent of the states.”
The Soli currently has to be paid by around 10 percent of taxpayers with the highest incomes, while it no longer applies to 90 percent of taxpayers. Many experts expect the Federal Constitutional Court to order the complete abolition of the Soli due to the unequal treatment, and that’s why.