This article first appeared on RTL.de
Tank discount and 9-euro ticket are a thing of the past, at the end of the month every employee will receive another 300 euros gross as an energy price flat rate. However, we still have to pay taxes on this. How much of it is left? And what happens, for example, to people on parental leave? We have summarized the most important answers for you.
Energy is getting more and more expensive, inflation is fueling the problems and many people don’t know how to pay their bills in a few months. The traffic light government is therefore working on further relief. It will continue in September, when millions of employees will receive a government cash injection of 300 euros gross into their accounts.
Everyone who lives and works in Germany or who commutes across the border is entitled to the 300 euros: employees, trainees, civil servants, soldiers, board members, mini-jobbers or temporary workers. Employees in semi-retirement also get money. The lump sum is usually paid with the September salary. For the self-employed, the advance tax payment from September 10 will be reduced. Anyone who was still employed at the beginning of the year but is now unemployed will receive the money without a special application via their tax return.
The payment of the energy allowance is linked to the actual work that an employee has done in 2022. Parents who have had a baby and have worked receive the cash injection. In general, in order to receive the payment from the employer, parents must prove to the employer that they have received parental allowance. If the payment is not made via the employer, employees will receive the flat rate via their income tax return for 2022.
The 300 euros are paid gross. Wage and income tax are deducted, but no social security contributions. In this way, the traffic light wants to achieve social differentiation: people with low incomes get more money than top earners.
On average 193 euros, says the Ministry of Finance. Only employees whose taxable income remains below the basic allowance of around 10,000 euros receive the full 300 euros. In the case of top earners, on the other hand, according to the calculations of the taxpayers’ association, only around 180 euros remain – for example singles with tax class 1 and an annual salary of 72,000 euros. Anyone who pays the tax rate for the wealthy because of their high income gets even less out of it.
A married employee with a child, tax class 4 and an annual salary of EUR 45,000 receives a flat rate of EUR 216.33. With an annual salary of EUR 15,000, the same employee would receive EUR 248.83. If he is in tax class 3, he stays under the basic allowance and gets the full 300 euros.
Anyone who has no taxable income. Above all, many pensioners, but also students – if they don’t have at least one mini-job. You have to be careful who, for example, lets your own children hire you as a babysitter pro forma. The prerequisite for the lump sum is that such an employment relationship is seriously agreed and actually carried out in accordance with the agreement.
The Federal Working Group for Debt Counseling fears that the lump sum will be taken away directly from over-indebted people if their wages or accounts are garnished. The Ministry of Finance makes it clear: the lump sum is not affected by a garnishment of wages, since it is not legally a wage. There was initially no information on account seizures.
According to official information, the lump sum itself generates costs of 13.8 billion euros. However, the state also collects 3.4 billion euros from the fact that the employees pay wage and income tax on top of the lump sum and, in some cases, a solidarity surcharge. The bottom line is that costs remain at 10.4 billion euros.
No, that’s clear now. Gas, electricity and fuel prices have exploded in recent months. For electricity alone, the comparison portal Verivox counted 123 price increases from basic suppliers for August, September and October, which means annual additional costs of more than 300 euros for an average 3-person household. In the case of gas, the increases are even more juicy, plus the state gas surcharge.
The federal government is working on another relief package, from which, according to Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), pensioners should also benefit. In government circles, however, one expects that this bundle will not be quite as lavish as the last one with one-off payments, a 9-euro ticket and tax cuts. It is likely that targeted population groups with little money will be relieved. Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) is planning a tax reform for the coming year from which all taxpayers should benefit.
