According to SPD General Secretary Kühnert, the planned tax relief for foreign skilled workers is off the table. He assumes “that this measure will not come to fruition,” he said in a newspaper interview.
According to SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert, the tax rebate for foreign skilled workers planned by the federal government will not be introduced after all.
In view of the many critical voices from the coalition, he assumes “that this measure will not be implemented,” Kühnert told the Ippen Media media group, which includes the Frankfurter Rundschau and the Münchener Merkur. “After all, you don't attract foreign skilled workers by confronting entire workforces with unequal tax treatment.”
Criticism from business and opposition
As part of a “growth initiative,” the cabinet last month announced tax incentives for taking up work in Germany. Newly immigrated top executives will be able to claim 30, 20 and then finally 10 percent of their gross salary as tax-free in the first three years.
Business associations were skeptical about this measure. In their opinion, other means such as a quick decision on the recognition of foreign degrees and qualifications and simplified and accelerated procedures for labor migration would be more important. The head of the Council of Economic Experts, Monika Schnitzer, expressed similar views.
Numerous opposition politicians also criticized the tax rebate. The Union's economic policy spokeswoman Julia Klöckner, for example, called it “discrimination against domestic citizens.” CSU General Secretary Martin Huber and BSW head Sahra Wagenknecht raised the question of fairness. Wagenknecht called for a tax and levy reform that would ease the burden on average earners.
Even traffic light politicians not convinced
Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) and politicians from the traffic light coalition had already distanced themselves from the idea in July. A tax rebate was not an appropriate means of addressing the shortage of skilled workers, he said. Kühnert also spoke out in favor of reducing the tax burden for all normal earners, “not just for people with a certain passport.”
With the tax rebate for foreigners, the federal government wants to counteract an impending acute shortage of skilled workers – for example in the IT sector or in the health sector. This threat is not least due to the fact that there are more and more older people and fewer and fewer young people in Germany.
The federal government points out that similar models are also practiced by many other European countries. In order to be attractive, the Netherlands and Austria, for example, already offer tax relief to skilled workers from abroad.
