Overview
- Germany’s Finance Ministry confirmed Thursday a draft for a “fiktives Realsplitting” that would apply only to future marriages and let partners shift up to €13,805 of allowance to trim taxes within a set limit.
- The ministry also wants to scrap wage tax classes III and V and require class IV with the factor method for all couples to prevent distorted take‑home pay for second earners.
- Examples from the IW show a one‑earner couple with €100,000 and €0 would owe about €4,100 more per year than under today’s split, while a €70,000 and €25,000 couple would pay roughly €300 more, and similar earners would see little change.
- Political pushback is building as the FDP calls the idea the “biggest tax increase,” many in the Union object, and CDU family minister Karin Prien supports reform that helps women move into full‑time jobs.
- Current marriages would keep the existing system, which the ministry says reduces revenue by about €25 billion a year, and the draft links the shift to expanded childcare funding of nearly €1 billion a year from 2026 to 2029.