The best comes last.

This also applies to the red-green-yellow coalition agreement.

At the end of the 177 pages there is the allocation of departments.

From the economic point of view, the following ministries are relevant: In addition to the Chancellery, the SPD also has the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (presumably still with Hubertus Heil) and the houses for health, building and development.

The Greens take care of the economy and climate protection (probably Robert Habeck), but also the environment and agriculture.

The FDP is given responsibility for finances (Christian Lindner) as well as transport and research.

Corinna Budras

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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Christian Geinitz

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Julia Löhr

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Manfred Schäfers

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The penultimate chapter in the joint work program is entitled “Future investments and sustainable finances”.

On the one hand, it contains a commitment to the debt rule in the Basic Law and, on the other hand, instructions on how this should be expanded.

A trick fills the climate fund

In 2022, the debt rule will be suspended again with reference to the consequences of the pandemic. "We will use the additional opportunities in particular to overcome the corona crisis and take measures for a quick economic recovery." This indicates that the additional financial leeway gained with reference to Corona should also be used for other purposes, which is likely to be constitutionally sensitive. For the years from 2023 onwards, the coalition agreement promises to limit the debt to the scope provided by the constitution.

The traffic light parties want to use several vehicles to finance the investments: development banks such as the state-owned KfW, which may receive more equity for this, Deutsche Bahn and the Federal Agency for Real Estate Tasks, which is supposed to build more itself. In addition, the coalition wants to reduce the repayment of the extremely high loans that were taken out in the pandemic or are still needed by around half: from 20 to 30 years. Calculation methods for the debt rule are also changed. This applies to the special assets and cyclical adjustments.

Another point is likely to be more important financially: credit authorizations that are not needed this or next year should benefit the climate and transformation fund, which should emerge from the energy and climate fund.

Since this could end up before the Federal Constitutional Court, the three new partners provide at least a reference to Covid-19.

"The aim is to combat the consequences of the corona pandemic and the simultaneous risks to the recovery of the economy and public finances from the global climate crisis, and investments in climate protection that have not been made due to the pandemic can be made up for."

Taxes on diesel are to be reviewed

In order to widen the scope, the parties want to "reduce unnecessary, ineffective and environmentally and climate-damaging subsidies and expenditures".

Reference is made to the EU Energy Tax Directive, "which, among other things, provides for the tax harmonization of diesel fuel and petrol".

The tax treatment of diesel vehicles in the vehicle tax will be checked.

But above all, the traffic light parties are turning their attention to plug-in hybrid vehicles.

If the distance that they can drive with electricity is too short, they should be subsidized less.

Even as a company car, they should not be treated better than combustion engines.

In the coming years, tax policy will not be shaped by fundamental new regulations, but by selective improvements.

These include: super depreciation of investments in climate protection and digitization in the next two years, extension of the extended loss offsetting until the end of 2023 and the home office regulation until the end of 2022, increase of the training allowance from 924 to 1200 euros and the savings allowance from 801 to 1000 euros (Married couples double).

In contrast to the exploratory paper, the agreement does not exclude tax increases and new taxes on assets.