It could be one of the most important domestic political issues of the coming year will be: How to proceed with the solos? At the party Congress of the CDU, the delegates have decided that the surcharge on the income tax should be abolished in this term completely. A big step, “more credibility”, says Carsten Linnemann, the head of the SME Association in the Union. Finally, his party promises to be a long time, the end of the special tax, which was introduced to Finance German unity. The wall has fallen almost 30 years ago, the solos still exists.

but There’s a Problem: In the coalition agreement is something else. Union and SPD have agreed that the Soli is to be eliminated. However, only for the bottom 90 percent of the Soli-payer. For this purpose, a so-called introduced free-at-frontier. Who is with his income, including that no longer has to pay the Soli in the future. Who earns more, pays more. The SPD is determined to let it go at that. How to listen in party circles, you would not even risk the collapse of the coalition, if the Union of their demand for the complete abolition moves away. So what is it?

This question on the basis of the present calculations of the SPD-led German Federal Ministry of Finance for the first time in Detail to answer. The result is summarized thus: From the coalition’s decision-especially people with low, middle and higher income would benefit the Union’s proposal relieves especially top earners.

Who pays how much?

the Annual amount of the “solidarity surcharge” for various income level (Single)

source: Federal MINISTRY of Finance © TIME graphics

The Soli is a surcharge on the income tax in the amount of 5.5 percent of the tax debt. In the case of Singles he is currently a taxable annual income of 15,000 euros. Important: The taxable income equals the gross income. This is due to the fact that every citizen may deduct certain expenditure from the tax, such as contributions for pension insurance. A taxable income of 15,000 euros, a gross income of 19,000 euros corresponds to rollover.

The coalition now wants to free taxpayers up to a taxable income of 61,000 Euro from the solos. Who needs more than tax 61,000 euros and less than 76,000 euros, gets a Part. The leads, depending on income to a tax discount of up to nearly 1,000 Euro per household per year.

This article dates back to the TIME no 53/2018. Here you can read the entire issue.

the equivalent of earnings on the Gross, that means: Singles with a gross income of a maximum of around 72,000 euros will have to pay at all, no solos. A married couple with two children may even earn about 150,000 euros, before the award is due. These are very ordinary salaries. Who gets so much, belongs already to the realm of ten percent, the most in the country. For comparison: The average annual gross income is 37.103 Euro.

The Union now wants to get rid in addition, the taxpayer completely from the solos, which are on the border of 61,000 euros to taxable income. The result: A stand-Alone with a taxable income of 80,000 euros (about 90,000 euros gross) would be relieved to 1.374 Euro in the year, with an income of a Million, it would be even 23.846 Euro. The CEO of a Dax company (average salary € 7.4 million) would annually save more than 100,000 euros in taxes.

Less in the tax cash –

Annual cost of the various projects

source: Federal MINISTRY of Finance © TIME graphics

For the state of the matter, however, is quite expensive: in The coalition agreement agreed discounts cost of 10.2 billion Euro. The additional tax relief for top earners hit with around 11.5 billion euros. Year in and year out. With the money you could build, for example, every year approximately 25,000 homes in the social housing or the Federal budget provided funding for the digital Development of schools doubled.