January with billion plus: Tax revenues climb to a record high

January with billion plus
Tax revenue hits record high

Despite all corona restrictions: the federal, state and local governments are taking in more than ever at the beginning of the year. Above all, a big plus in value added tax and wage tax fills the coffers. But the Federal Ministry of Finance curbs the euphoria: Nothing will change in the budget situation.

According to a media report, federal, state and local tax revenues rose to a new record in January. Compared to January 2021, there was an increase of 22.4 percent, reported the “Welt”, citing a letter from the Federal Ministry of Finance.

Value added tax increased by as much as 48 percent, and wage tax by almost eleven percent. The amount of general government tax revenue was given in the report for January at 57.6 billion euros, 10.7 billion euros more than a year earlier. The federal government alone took in 21.9 billion euros, an increase of 5.6 billion euros compared to January 2021.

According to “Welt”, however, the letter spoke of a “year-on-year comparison that was greatly exaggerated due to special effects”, from which “no significant change in the budget situation” can be seen. All expenditure would therefore continue to be put to the test. Reference was made to the special features of VAT and short-time work in the previous year.

The comparative value at the beginning of last year was very low. In addition, short-time work was much more widespread at the beginning of 2021 than it is now. “At the turn of the year 2020/2021, a good 2.7 million employees were on short-time work, a year later, according to current estimates, this number was a third of that number,” quoted the “Welt” from the ministry letter.

source site-34