To save the inner cities: Union plans to levy online shopping

To save the inner cities
Union plans to levy online shopping

Stationary retail is in lockdown, while online retailers are among the big winners of the corona crisis. The CDU and CSU want to counteract the death of shops and ask the senders to pay for it.

According to a newspaper report, the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag plans to tax parcels in online retail. The retail trade, which was shaken by the corona lockdown, should be helped by a "pact for lively inner cities", reports the "Welt am Sonntag", citing a policy paper available to it. To this end, a "city center fund" should be set up, which should be fed by tax money, but also by a new fee for online trading.

In the policy paper, according to the information, a "parcel delivery for online trading" is required, "the amount of which is proportional to the order value". The fee should be collected from the internet dealer and paid by him to the tax office. Whether this charge leads to higher prices is up to the provider.

The authors of the paper are the Union's deputy parliamentary group leader Andreas Jung, who is responsible for financial policy, and Christian Haase, the parliamentary group's local political spokesman. According to "WamS", the reason for their move is as follows: "With the income, online retailers share in the costs of the municipal infrastructure they use. This eliminates the imbalance compared to stationary retail, which already today contributes significantly to the municipal budget with its taxes. "

The income from the new fee should immediately relieve the local retail trade – "none of it remains in the federal treasury," the newspaper quotes from the paper. In addition, the "pact for lively inner cities" should help businesses that had to close temporarily due to the pandemic with more generous bridging aid, quick loans and tax breaks.

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