With the majority of the government factions of the CDU / CSU and SPD, the Bundestag passed the government draft for the Annual Tax Act 2020 with numerous changes on Wednesday. This means that in future the charitable nature of initiatives for free radio, climate protection and local beautification can be recognized. The FDP voted against the initiative, the AfD, the Left and the Greens abstained.

For Freifunker it will be easier for the construction to raise money or donations in kind from open WLAN access points and issue confirmations for the tax office in return. The Bundestag had previously rejected proposals from the FDP, the Greens and the Bundesrat to classify the free hotspot operators as non-profit in principle. At the beginning 2019 the federal government had made its own attempt, but due to the debate about the non-profit status of Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) and Attac and Campact, no progress was made. Tax relief for home office According to the coalition’s corrections, those who work in the home office are also allowed to expect tax breaks. According to the project, taxpayers can claim an amount of five euros for each calendar day on which they work exclusively in their home. The lump sum should be able to be claimed if the conditions for the deduction of costs for a home office are not met. The benefits are limited to a maximum amount of 600 euros per year and are only granted during the corona pandemic for 2020 and 2021 granted. The resulting reduced tax revenue should be 900 million euros.

EU-wide companies no longer have to be in each Member State individually meet their tax obligations. In the future, this can only be done in the company’s home country via a web portal, where VAT is settled centrally for all online sales. Tax fraud by traders from non-EU countries is to be combated more intensively. According to the draft, operators of online marketplaces are fictitiously integrated into the supply chain and thus made more responsible.

Praise and criticism In the final debate, the Social Democrat Lothar Binding spoke of a fair lump sum for teleworkers, which, after the two-year experiment in the Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) planned by the CDU / CSU Group but rejected claim to home office could result. Sebastian Brehm (CSU) emphasized that the considerable strain on workers at home was compensated for. This is a good signal for the digital world.

Kay Gottschalk (AfD) criticized the fact that the benefits for teleworkers are alms that still have to be offset against the advertising costs. Markus Herbrand (FDP) complained that the rules for the home office remained with the time limit halfway. If you have a lower income, you get nothing here, criticized the leftist Fabio De Masi. Lisa Paus complained for the Greens that black and red had not eliminated the massive legal uncertainty for civil society organizations in the case of non-profit status. Commitment to democracy, fundamental and human rights or social justice were left out as reasons for recognition.

(olb)