The conscience of finance speaks up
The latest dispute over the budget 2025 shows how difficult it is to distribute taxpayers' money to the various sectors. At the same time, digitalization is progressing slowly, schools are underfunded. It could be the hour of the Taxpayers' League - if it makes a substantial contribution.
Since November of the previous year, there has been considerable pressure on the budgetary political pot. At that time, the Federal Constitutional Court struck down one of the foundations on which the financial political architecture of the Federal Republic had long rested. Finance Minister Christian Lindner imposed a budget freeze, and the Taxpayers' League demanded a halt in spending by the Federal Government.
The traffic light coalition was looking for ways to save, and found one in agricultural diesel, announcing the end of subsidies and provoking a small farmers' uprising. Since November, money has been fiercely contested in Germany. Many agree: there is a need for reform in Germany, large deficits in administration, and a lot to digitalize. The country needs a major reform, says economist Stefan Bach. But this is politically unattractive, according to the tax expert at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW): "Taking that on would be the task of a financial political conscience."
This conscience wants to be the Taxpayers' League. The "Financial Conscience of the Nation" is what the association calls itself. It aims to first define the interests of German taxpayers and then bring them into the political process. It does this effectively: with the "Black Book" on the misuse of taxpayer funds, for example, and with the Taxpayers' Memorial Day, which falls on July 11 this year. All very newsworthy. "Vulgar economic populism" is how Bach once described it.
"I've often found it one-sided"
"Of course, one has to stir things up every now and then," Bach told ntv.de. "But then there have to be constructive proposals behind it." The Taxpayers' League leaves it too often at the chaos - without offering constructive alternatives. Green MP Katharina Beck says about that: "I have often found the Taxpayers' League to be relatively one-sided." But we are in good talks, says the financial politician.
Bach remembers that the association used to present interesting proposals in the past, which political advisors and scientists picked up. Today, the Taxpayers' League does "pure agenda work." It doesn't weigh in, formulate no new thoughts. One could just as well read statements from parties, says the tax expert. Beck adds: "In this legislative period, I have not yet noticed any groundbreaking concept from the Taxpayers' League."
The Taxpayers' League makes headlines with three formats, remains in the conversation, but also gets criticized regularly. Besides the Black Book and the Taxpayers' Memorial Day, the association is mainly known for the Debt Clock: It is supposed to illustrate the development of the German national debt - in seconds. The representation is based on an estimate that adds up the "planned credit acquisitions" of various budgets for the current year. This value is then divided by the number of seconds in a year.
Half a year working for the state?
Similarly, it is with the Taxpayers' Memorial Day: According to the Taxpayers' League, it symbolizes "when taxpayers start working for their own wallet." Last year, it was on July 12. Steward President Rainer Holznagel explained at the time: "Everything they earned before that had to be paid as compulsory contributions, as taxes, to the state."
A man wanted a functioning state, infrastructure, education, police, and social security, Holznagel stated to ntv on the occasion of the taxpayer remembrance day last year: "But does it have to take more than half of our income?" In this year, there is at least a slight improvement to mention: The burden is roughly 0.1 percentage points lower than in 2023. The Taxpayers' League still demands relief, however.
For the public coffers, the Taxpayers' League also counts contributions to pension and unemployment insurance, as well as the "quasi tax" television levy. Even the employer's contribution to social insurance is included in their calculations and attributed to employees by the Taxpayers' League. In addition, the Taxpayers' League ignores in its calculation taxes that the state pays to itself. The calculation is estimated to be around 65 billion euros per year by Stefan Bach. Thus, the tax burden increases. Depending on the calculation, the "Taxpayers' Remembrance Day" could even already take place in May, as tax expert Bach pointed out in a contribution for "Zeit" in 2017.
"They poke their finger in the open wound"
In the "Black Book of the Taxpayers," the Taxpayers' League lists a hundred cases of tax waste every year. From gold-plated parking spaces to a heated bridge - they are mostly particularly conspicuous examples of misplanning. Stories that transport well in the media, that people like to tell because they are so clear.
CSU politician Alois Rainer also reads the Black Book, ntv.de reports. The chairman of the Finance Committee in the Bundestag praises the Taxpayers' League for "poking their finger in the wound." The work of the association finds broad media resonance; a similar broad approval from politicians and politicians comes from the ranks of the Union and FDP, although it is much louder and more numerous from the Union and FDP.
The Taxpayers' League does not want to be particularly close to any party, as the association clarifies on its website. It speaks for all taxpayers: for all those who want "politics to give them sufficient room for living and doing business." The offer, however, seems to speak to fewer and fewer people: At the turn of the millennium, the Taxpayers' League still had more than 400,000 members, according to "Spiegel," but now, according to their own statements, there are still around 200,000.
Members with "high income and above-average education"
The remaining members do not represent the social average, as the association makes clear: Members receive the magazine "The Taxpayer" ten times a year. Its readership "has a high household net income and is above-average educated." So the association praises potential advertising customers in a brochure from 2021. It is a "premium target group from the upper middle class, who are decisive and have a high purchasing power."
Bach formulates it as follows: "These are rather self-employed people, many tax advisors and lawyers, higher civil servants - mostly men with above-average income." Such people would be more heavily burdened by taxes and duties. This clientele is served by the Taxpayers' League with its critical stance on the state, with its tax-reducing philosophy, Bach explains.
It would be "really beneficial to the common good," if the association focused more comprehensively on reforms in public administration's procurement or personnel and project management, Bach states. However, he criticizes: "Their activism and campaigns primarily represent the interests of the affluent, the top ten percent in income and wealth." "Primarily the top percent." The association fiercely opposes the Solidarity Surcharge, which now only affects people who pay more than 18,000 Euro in income tax.
What about the interests of the "smaller people"?
Wealthy individuals are relatively lightly taxed in Germany, while the middle class and low-wage earners have a comparatively high tax burden, Bach points out. When it comes to tax and fee reductions, the interests of the "smaller people" are not well represented by the Taxpayers' Association, he concludes.
Despite being an exclusive group, the Taxpayers' Association manages to reach a broad public with its work. This is because it makes complex issues understandable. The association deals with topics such as the Black Book, Taxpayers' Memorial Day, and Debt Clock, which are otherwise not known for their entertainment value. The Taxpayers' Association turns Excel tables into stories.
However, with this reduction, some aspects are lost. On the one hand, topics such as tax evasion, Cum-Ex fraud schemes, and legal tax-saving models are left behind. Billion-dollar issues that the Taxpayers' Association rarely addresses. On the other hand, it often remains at a vague feeling of suspicion towards the state that the association addresses with its actions. Why public funds are being wasted and how this can be prevented are questions that the Taxpayers' Association seldom asks.
Although the Taxpayers' League is known for highlighting cases of tax misuse and advocating for taxpayer rights, critics suggest that they often stop at creating chaos without offering constructive alternatives. Green MP Katharina Beck argues, "I have often found the Taxpayers' League to be relatively one-sided."
In the realm of household policies, the Taxpayers' League has also attracted attention for its stance against certain government spending. For instance, the association's criticism of agricultural diesel subsidies led to an uprising among small farmers. The Taxpayers' League's position on such household policies is driven by its mission to safeguard the interests of taxpayers and promote fiscal responsibility.
