The economy is weakening, but the tax revenues are bubbling – and the Federal Ministry of Finance puzzles what is behind it. As the ministry announced in its new monthly report, the tax revenue in March 2025 was around 11 percent higher than in the same month. The income from wage tax has increased by more than 7 percent. The income from sales tax increased even more. They rose by around 16 percent compared to the same month last year. “There are no visible reasons for the strong increase,” write the ministry experts. On the basis of the overall economic development, a much more moderate increase would have been expected, for example, the retail turnover, including motor vehicle trade, was grown by 3.5 percent in January 2025, which would be the basis for the March volume of sales tax. The amount of import sales tax even increased by almost 19 percent compared to March 2024. The basis for this is the imports in January; They had increased by 8.7 percent. There was a 5 percent increase in income for the assessed income tax. In contrast, corporation tax decreased by almost 3 percent for the current year compared to March 2024. The Ministry of Finance provides an explanation here: “The currently weak economic framework conditions are apparently less likely to have a strong impact on the income taxpayers than the companies that are more involved in the world market.” For the federal states that also benefit from these taxes, there was further good news: The amount of real estate transfer tax increased by almost 37 percent, the inheritance tax by around 17 percent. These income flow alone to the countries.
