Lower VAT, more money for families and small businesses: The Bundestag has passed important parts of the economic stimulus package that is intended to boost consumption and the economy in the Corona crisis. Parliament approved the changes in a special session with the votes of the grand coalition. So that they can enter into force on July 1st, the approval of the Federal Council.
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A reduction in VAT is intended to strengthen the weakened purchasing power due to the corona pandemic and short-time work. By the end of the year, instead of 19, there would only be 16 percent VAT on purchases. The reduced rate, which applies to many groceries and everyday goods, is reduced from 7 to 5 percent.
Many supermarkets, car and furniture stores have announced that they will pass the savings on to their customers one-to-one – in some cases, prices have already been reduced at the beginning of the week.
Opposition doubts whether savings will reach consumers
The opposition nevertheless criticized the temporary tax cut as largely ineffective. For the retail trade it means “absurd bureaucratic effort”, at the same time an average household saves just 30 euros a month, said FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr. Left and Greens doubted that the savings would really reach the consumer. It was a daring, unpredictable bet. The AfD also questioned economic impulses.
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The second major component of the stimulus package is a bonus of 300 euros for each child entitled to child benefit. The first 200 euros are to be paid with child benefit in September, the remaining 100 euros in October. The child bonus is not counted towards the basic security, but is offset against the tax-free child allowance for higher earners, so that families with less money benefit in particular.
There are further facilities for companies, for example through changed depreciation rules. In addition, they should be able to offset current crisis-related losses better with profits from the previous year and thus have more money in the checkout in difficult times.
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The federal government bears most of the costs for the stimulus package: Almost 13 billion euros in tax losses arise from the reduction in VAT, the children’s bonus adds another 5.4 billion euros. To solve this, Finance Minister wants Olaf Scholz (SPD) take out more loans. In the meantime, record debts of 218.5 billion euros are planned for 2020. The Bundestag is scheduled to adopt the second supplementary budget later this week.
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