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Protest action by craftsmen in front of the Federal Chancellery: files as a symbol of bureaucracy

Photo: Florian Gaertner / photothek / IMAGO

Associations and entrepreneurs complaining about excessive bureaucracy in Germany is part of the standard repertoire at press conferences.

But figures from the Federal Statistical Office show that the “paperwork” has not just increased.

Accordingly, companies operating in Germany now have to fulfill almost 16 percent more information requirements than ten years ago.

As can be seen from a response from the Federal Statistical Office to a request from BSW chairwoman Sahra Wagenknecht, there were a total of 12,265 such specifications at the beginning of this year.

At the beginning of 2022 there were only 12,001 duties.

According to the list available to the dpa news agency, there were 10,592 information requirements on January 1, 2014.

The Federal Statistical Office speaks of information obligations when data or other information must be obtained, transmitted or kept available due to federal regulations.

This includes, for example, reporting obligations, applications and notifications.

According to the information, the annual bureaucracy costs, which arise solely from the information obligations of the economy, have also increased continuously.

As the Federal Office announced at Wagenknecht's request, they were 50 billion euros at the beginning of 2018 and 66.5 billion euros at the beginning of 2024.

However, the statisticians pointed out that increased wage costs in recent years had the greatest influence on the increase in bureaucracy costs.

Wagenknecht criticizes “ideologically motivated regulatory rage”

Wagenknecht accused the traffic lights of a “regulatory frenzy that was primarily ideologically motivated.”

As a result, the traffic light “strangles small and medium-sized companies in particular and endangers jobs,” criticized Wagenknecht.

After leaving the Left this year, she founded the Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) party.

The member of the Bundestag called on the federal government to abolish many senseless regulations and reporting requirements.

In addition to the costs caused by information obligations, companies also incur further costs, the so-called compliance costs.

This includes any expense that arises from federal legal requirements.

In addition, companies incur bureaucratic burdens due to EU regulations.

The planned Bureaucracy Relief Act IV is intended to provide companies and citizens with a total relief of around 682 million euros per year.

According to information from government circles, this will be discussed in the cabinet this Wednesday.

The planned changes affect various areas such as the Commercial Code, the Sales Tax Act, the Federal Registration Act and the Maintenance Advances Act.

For example, German citizens will soon no longer have to fill out registration forms in hotels.

mmq/dpa