“Nobody will get rich from this”
Kretschmann wants to keep parental allowance for higher earners
8/10/2023 7:31 am
In the debate about parental allowance, several advances collide: financial relief for families and better compatibility of family and work. In this case, Prime Minister Kretschmann is in favor of the latter and sharply criticizes the lowering of the reference limit.
Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann is critical of the planned abolition of parental allowance for high-income citizens. “First of all, parental allowance is not a classic social benefit,” said the Green politician in Stuttgart. “The point is that the compatibility of family and work is better achieved and that everyone participates in it and that we break up the classic role model in which it is mainly women who do the educational work.”
So far, parental allowance has been given to couples whose joint taxable income is less than 300,000 euros. Because of Finance Minister Christian Lindner’s savings requirements for the 2024 federal budget, Family Minister Lisa Paus wants to lower the limit to 150,000 euros. “Of course 150,000 euros is a large sum,” admitted Kretschmann. It is also clear that savings must be made where it is most manageable. “But that must then apply to all areas,” said the head of government. “No one gets rich from parental allowance. Parental allowance is a contribution to guaranteeing a certain autonomy for the partner who takes care of the child. That’s why I see this cut critically.”
SPD federal leader Lars Klingbeil had proposed as an alternative to reducing parental allowances to abolish spouse splitting for new marriages – but FDP leader Christian Lindner had rejected this. With spouse splitting, the joint income of a couple is halved, the income tax due is calculated and the tax liability is then doubled. This is particularly useful for couples where one earns a lot and the other a little.
Kretschmann is critical of the marriage splitting, but considers a debate about it to be wrong at this point in time. “I’m very open to changing that. But we shouldn’t start any conflict debates in these times, although there is no foreseeable consensus in the federal government – I don’t think that makes sense,” he said. An abolition of the spouse splitting is also not in the coalition agreement of the traffic light government. “You have to change the spouse splitting. We Greens have always made proposals for this,” said the Prime Minister. “But that’s not easy, because for people who have chosen this way of life, these are very serious interventions. They would then have to pay significantly more taxes.” In this context, Kretschmann also criticized the fact that childless couples now benefit from splitting. “We should focus more on the children.”