German Conservatives May Not Oppose Corporate Tax Hike

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

04 October 2002

The AFP news agency reported this week that despite opposition leader, Edmund Stoiber's protestations to the contrary, the Christian Union parties may support a minimal increase in corporation tax.

Mr Stoiber's parties - which have a majority in the upper house of parliament, or Bundesrat - had threatened to block any such tax increases put forward by the newly re-elected Social Democrat/Green government. However, according to opposition Finance Minister, Gerhard Stratthaus, the conservatives may be coming round to the idea.

'Repairs have to be made to the system to ensure that enterprises that make profits also pay taxes,' Mr Stratthaus observed on Inforadio in Berlin this week, adding that: 'This year, large corporations paid almost no tax at all on their profits. That has to change.'

The conservative shadow Finance Minister went on to explain that corporate tax, usually paid to the 16 state authorities dropped from 23.5 billion in 2000 to next to nothing in 2001 following reforms to the system.

Recommended