The federal government is currently in debt with around 1.7 trillion euros – every citizen can help reduce the federal government’s mountain of debt. The federal government’s debt repayment account has existed since 2006. If you want, you can transfer any amount there, which will be used to pay off the liabilities.
Last year, the Federal Ministry of Finance recorded 701 deposits into this account, as a spokeswoman for the house said in response to a Stern query on Tuesday. The total of all deposits in 2023 was 106,683.65 euros, around 46,000 euros more than in 2022.
According to the information, one person alone transferred 25,000 euros to the federal government – the largest single amount of the past year. The lowest amount received was one cent. This also flowed into the federal treasury – or as the ministry says: “The funds received in the debt repayment account are collected in the federal budget in Section 32 – Federal Debt – at the budget office in Chapter 3201 Borrowing, Title 32511 ‘Income from loans from the credit market’ and are to be used for the purpose of repaying debts in accordance with budget note No. 2.”
The Ministry of Finance can of course say little about the motivation of citizens to voluntarily transfer money to the federal government – but it can say little about the total amount that has ended up there since the account was set up 18 years ago: 1,390,046.10 euros. If things continued at this rate, the federal government would be debt-free in around 22 million years.
It is unlikely that significantly more money will enter the account in the future – nor is it the explicit goal of the federal government. The government explained in 2019 that they do not expect such contributions “and do not strive to encourage the population to make such payments”: “The state is not dependent on donations to finance the federal budget, and it should not create this impression by actively promoting Arrange donations.”
