What did Klingbeil mean?
Scholz partially brakes marriage splitting advance
07/13/2023 10:57 p.m
In the slipstream of the parental allowance discussion, SPD party leader Lars Klingbeil gets things rolling about spouse splitting. But Chancellor Olaf Scholz is now putting his proposal into perspective. For average earners, “no one intends to propose a worsening,” he said at a public dialogue.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has put his party leader Lars Klingbeil’s initiative to abolish spouse splitting into perspective. Spouse splitting is the legal situation in Germany, but “of course there are always discussions as to whether it is disproportionate, especially for those who earn a few hundred thousand euros a year,” said Scholz at a citizens’ dialogue in Füssen, Bavaria, when asked about the proposed abolition. “But for average earners, nobody intends to propose a worsening of the tax burden now. I think that’s always very important for classifying the discussion.”
In an interview, SPD chairman Klingbeil proposed the abolition of spouse splitting for new marriages instead of saving on parental allowance. “We are finally doing away with spouse splitting. This would put an end to the antiquated tax model that favors the classic distribution of roles between men and women. And the state would save money,” Klingbeil told the editorial network Germany (RND).
In German tax law for 65 years
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. The marriage splitting was only written into the Income Tax Act in 1958 at the instigation of the Federal Constitutional Court.
However, Klingbeil had received some support from his own party: “I can only say from a professional point of view as Minister of Labor that a reform of the marriage splitting is also necessary in terms of labor market policy in order to improve the number of women in the labor force,” said Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil.
Sharp substantive criticism came from the CSU, among others: “The SPD plans to abolish spouse splitting mean tax increases for millions of families and are an attack on the broad middle of society,” said regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt.