(Adnkronos) – The ‘Soli’ (Solidaritaetszuschlag’), the solidarity tax originally introduced to finance the costs of German reunification, remains in force. This was established by the judges of the German Constitutional Court, rejecting the appeal of six liberal political exponents (Fdp). The government still has financial needs deriving from the reunification process, the judges ruled, specifying that the so-called solidarity contribution should not, however, be considered permanent and that in the absence of a need that justifies it, its constitutional legitimacy would also lapse. If the opinion expressed had been contrary to the tax, an item of 12.75 billion Euros in the budget would have disappeared and the government would have potentially been forced to reimburse 65 billion collected starting from 2020.
The liberal exponents who turned to the Constitutional Court argued that the additional tax lost all legal basis after the conclusion, in 2019, of the Solidarity Pact II, which provided for special funding aimed at reducing the economic gap between the once communist East Germany and West Germany. The tax – they also underlined – is aimed at high earners, while most taxpayers no longer pay it. Since 2021, only higher earners, companies and investors are required to pay the 5.5% surcharge on income, corporation and capital gains taxes. According to the German Economic Institute (IW), around 6 million individuals and 600,000 companies are still subject to this tax.
However, the court did not find any violation of the principle of equality. The German government defended the tax in court during a hearing in November, arguing that the costs of reunification continue and that a surcharge should not be tied to a single specific expense. The Union had promised to abolish the tax before the vote.
