The German Federal Ministry of Finance says, in its own words, that it does not know which groups of the population have benefited from the tax cuts so far implemented by the schwarz‑roten coalition, and which have not.
This follows from two almost identical letters the ministry sent to the left‑wing Bundestag member Doris Achelwilm, a story reported by the Süddeutsche Zeitung. One of the letters states that “the federal government has no findings in the sense of the question”.
Achelwilm had asked the ministry how the government’s so‑called investment acceleration programme and the 2025 Tax Reform Act had affected different income groups-average earners, low‑income households, and high‑income households.
The investment programme, better known as the “growth booster” is intended to reinvigorate the economy. It includes more generous depreciation schemes for companies and a step‑wise reduction of corporate tax. The Tax Reform Act, meanwhile, re‑introduces a VAT privilege for the hospitality sector and removes the commuting allowance.
The German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) had already analysed that the main recipients of the growth booster will likely be the rich and super‑rich, since companies are almost always owned by households with high incomes and wealth. According to DIW estimates, 69 % of the relief-almost €20 billion-will go to the highest‑earning 1 % of the population, meaning households with an annual gross income of €180 000 or more.
Because the left party cannot accept the Ministry’s apparent lack of knowledge, Achelwilm and her faction plan to submit a bill to the Bundestag this week that would require a “distribution check” for every future tax law. Unlike current requirements, the draft would not only demand that authorities explain the effects on public budgets and bureaucratic costs but also outline the distributional effects.
Specifically, the left demands data on how tax relief or increases split between corporations and individuals, the consequences for all ten income brackets, and the impact on the top 5 %, 1 %, and the top 0.1 % of private households. Sweden is cited as a model, where such effects have been studied for years.
“When it is time to make visible which income groups are, in which scale, tax‑relieved or burdened” Achelwilm said to the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The current coalition of CDU, CSU and SPD has so far only lifted restrictions for the top end. “Low‑ and middle‑income households scarcely appear in the multi‑billion relief packages, while companies and the wealthy have clearly benefited” she added. Achelwilm, who also chairs her faction’s finance committee in the Bundestag, argues that making these effects transparent is methodologically feasible and already standard practice in other countries.
