Photo: Euro coins, via dts
Berlin (dts) – Only one citizen voluntarily and voluntarily participated in the reduction of national debt as a result of the corona crisis with a larger sum last year. A donor transferred 2,000 euros to the federal debt repayment account, according to the response of the Federal Ministry of Finance to a small request from FDP member of the Bundestag Markus Herbrand, which the newspapers of the Funke media group (Thursday editions) report on.
According to this, 255 transfers with a total value of EUR 48,919.70 were received in the federal debt repayment account last year. Among the incoming payments of € 700 or more listed by the Ministry of Finance, only the one € 2,000 donation is intended for the purpose of “debt repayment Corona”. Citizens have been able to voluntarily pay money into the debt repayment account since 2006. According to the paper, the federal government received exceptionally high donations of around 610,000 euros in 2018. In 2019 there were still 262 transfers for a total of 51,518.64 euros. In contrast to donations for charitable organizations, there are no tax advantages for charitable donations to the state. FDP financial expert Herbrand criticized in the Funke newspapers that the debt repayment through voluntary donations to the federal government according to the current tax code does not serve any charitable purpose. He called it “sad” that Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) had been ignoring this “clear competitive disadvantage” compared to church or charitable organizations for years.
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