It is politically convenient to assign the role of substitute legislature to the Federal Constitutional Court.
Federal Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz (SPD) has also left Karlsruhe to override the excessive interest rates of 6 percent annually on tax back payments and refunds - and to ensure that they are overdue in line with reality.
This is characterized by a zero or even negative interest rate policy.
As a result, taxpayers, especially larger companies, are no longer able to hedge the risk of a high interest burden in the event of an additional payment on the capital markets.
The misery is documented by a harsh decision by the Federal Fiscal Court in 2018. Instead of immediately correcting the unjustified inflows into the state coffers (which largely benefited from the interest rate regime), Scholz only instructed the tax authorities at that time to make the interest rate setting subject to change. The new ruling will hopefully ensure that the federal and state governments (including some taxpayers) give back what they are not entitled to and that realistic interest rates are finally calculated.