The AfD promises extensive tax relief in the draft of its election program for the federal election. According to calculations by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), reported by the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland” (Sunday editions), the wealthy will profit disproportionately from this.
In addition, many financial benefits are not counter-financed or seriously recalculated. According to the calculations of DIW researcher Stefan Bach, reported by the newspapers, the AfD promises tax relief of 182 billion euros per year in its election program, which corresponds to 4.1% of the gross domestic product.
Of this, 37% (68 billion euros) go to the top 10% of the population, 19% (34 billion euros) to the top 1%, and 45 billion euros per year go to the lower half of the population.
The traditional AfD demand for a family splitting for all families would primarily benefit better-off and high-earning families, where the splitting advantage exceeds the relief effects of child benefit and child allowance. An unlimited family splitting in the income tax would mean relief of 21 billion euros per year.
The AfD denies the consequences of human-induced climate change and does not want to restrict fossil energy. The CO2 pricing through EU and national emissions trading should be abolished, and the energy and electricity tax should be reduced to the EU’s minimum tax rates. This would mean relief of a total of 43 billion euros per year, which would mainly benefit low- and middle-income earners, as they spend a large part of their budget on fossil fuels and electricity.
DIW economist Bach concludes that the tax relief of 182 billion euros per year promised by the AfD is “fiscally utopian in the face of the financial policy challenges, especially if the debt brake is to be maintained, even if the relief is implemented in the long term”.
The consequence would be “comprehensive cuts in public budgets, significant cuts in public services, social benefits, and subsidies”. This would mainly burden the poor, the working middle class, and even high-earners. The AfD will decide on the draft of the election program at its federal party convention on January 11 and 12 in Riesa.