The German Employers' Association (BDA) expects that significantly fewer companies will pay out the planned tax-free relief bonus of €1,000 to employees than a similar one-time payment in 2022. "It will be significantly fewer," BDA Managing Director Steffen Kampeter told Bild newspaper (Thursday edition). For example, it was agreed just a few weeks ago in the chemical industry that there would be no wage adjustment this year.
"They won't now say, with the many hundreds of thousands of employees, we'll just pay that on top. That's neither in the calculation nor in the overall dynamic of the collective agreement. That is the central error," said Kampeter. The so-called inflation compensation premium decided in 2022 had been received by more than 80 percent of collectively bargained employees.
Kampeter sharply criticized Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD). Both had "raised expectations and dumped the fulfillment of these expectations on others. You don't do that, that's not proper," said Kampeter. Unlike in 2022, employers and trade unions had also not been involved in the decision.
The black-red coalition decided on Monday that employers can pay their employees a tax-free relief premium of €1,000 in 2026. It also announced that it would reduce the mineral oil tax on petrol and diesel by 17 cents per liter for two months.
Criticism of the relief premium also came from the Taxpayers' Association. "A truly appropriate solution for relief would be an increase in the commuting allowance for everyone who has to use a car or bus and train to get to work," said the President of the Federation of Taxpayers, Reiner Holznagel, to the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland.
In reality, the premium is a promise at the expense of third parties. "Politics is counting on relief here that goes on the bill of employers." Whether companies, whose turnover is declining due to rising costs, can even pay the €1,000 is completely open.
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