There it is again, the attack on company car taxation.

Green leader Omid Nouripour says "company car privilege" and wants to raise taxes to give the state more money for other purposes.

Patrick Bernau

Responsible editor for economy and "value" of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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Dyrk Scherff

Editor in the “Value” section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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A lot of people sit up and take notice, because company cars have not seemed so terribly tempting in recent years.

There are acquaintances who have been driving a company car for years, but then do the math again and prefer to buy their next vehicle privately.

The big company is full of tax consultants, in which almost nobody wants a company car because hardly anyone finds it worthwhile.

Should they all have miscalculated?

Or are they all just crazy isolated cases?

Many studies are circulating these weeks that have spectacular titles, but on closer inspection are not very illuminating.

The think tank Agora Energiewende publishes a paper in which there is a model calculation for only one conventionally powered car, namely the Audi Q5, and that is really not the best-selling company car in Germany.

Who drives 18,000 kilometers a year?

The Federal Environment Agency, on the other hand, claims that the current regulation of tax revenue costs the state around three billion euros a year.

If you look closely at how this number came about, you will see that the office did not calculate it itself.

Instead, it passes a number that an environmental organization called "Forum Ecological-Social Market Economy" wrote down.

Their calculation, in turn, is very detailed, but makes two essential assumptions out of hand.

This is not defamatory, reliable data on company cars is hard to come by.

Nevertheless, the assumptions are debatable.

Among other things: Company car owners would drive around 18,000 kilometers a year privately, at least.

You don't have to think that's plausible.

After all, the average German drove only 12,000 kilometers before the pandemic and has driven even less since then.

Because the study situation is so bad, the FAS itself has made some model calculations.

It works like this: On the one hand, it is important how the cars are taxed.

If you are allowed to use a company car privately, the tax office will add an amount to your gross salary - the so-called "monetary benefit".

This is usually calculated as a lump sum, because otherwise the driver would have to note every trip in the logbook and the tax office would have to check everything.

There are often legal proceedings because of the logbooks.

This is really only worthwhile for people who rarely travel privately.

For the flat rate, on the other hand, the tax office usually simply uses the new price of the car and takes into account how far the employee has to drive to the office.

On the other hand, you have to know how expensive the car is to run.

If the car costs less than the monetary benefit, then it is more worthwhile if the employee has the money paid out and buys the car himself - then this company car does not have tax privileges.

The FAS uses the information from the ADAC car cost calculator, but also takes into account that new car buyers often get a discount compared to the list price.

The FAS did all this for four models that are among the most common company cars in Germany.

This is the VW Passat, there is also a BMW station wagon, as well as the Mercedes S-Class as a luxury car.

The Opel Corsa is entering the race as a small car, because the registration statistics show that company cars are by no means always large luxury class sedans.

Anyone who occasionally sees the cars of nursing services on the streets knows that.

The Corsa is also one of the top 10 German company cars.