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In the past year, the tax offices paid more reimbursement interest to taxpayers than they received interest on the other side.
The bottom line is for 2020 a minus of 351 million euros.
This emerges from a response from the federal government to a parliamentary question from the FDP parliamentary group that WELT AM SONNTAG has received.
It is the second year in a row that the state has made a loss by paying interest on back tax claims and tax refunds.
In 2017, there was an interest profit of 367 million euros.
The numbers are tricky because the state has long argued with citizens about the level of the statutory interest rate.
For 60 years this has been 0.5 percent per month for back tax payments and tax refunds - that is, six percent per year.
In view of the pronounced phase of low interest rates on the capital markets, this has long been out of date, critics object.
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The fact that the state paid more interest to citizens in 2019 and 2020 than it received the other way round can be explained by a decision by the Federal Fiscal Court in 2018.
Since the judges there expressed doubts as to whether the six percent is still constitutional, any taxpayer can apply for the execution of the interest payment to be suspended.
He does not have to transfer interest on late tax payments until the question has been resolved by the Federal Constitutional Court.
Depending on the outcome, the state still receives money afterwards.
When the decision will be made is open.
"The usury interest of the tax office was introduced under Chancellor Adenauer and should be reformed immediately," says the MP Markus Herbrand, financial expert of the FDP.
Waiting again - as is the case with property tax or inheritance and gift tax - until the constitutional court revokes a clearly recognizable unconstitutional regulation does not correspond to the standard that the legislature should meet.
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This text is from WELT AM SONNTAG.
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Source: Welt am Sonntag