Anita Mage wrote:
> Chris Burford wrote:
>
> >What is an Entfernungpauschale (80pf /km)?
> >
>
> It's a state credit per kilometer traveled between home and place of work,
> regardless of what mode of transport you take, so even if you use your old
> velo you still get the credit.
I think the exact English term would be tax break or write-off. Currently wage-earners can only write off 70pf/km. If you use public transport you can write-off the actual costs (which is much less). If you use your bycycle you can write off 8pf/km. Now it is planned that you can write off 80pf/km regardless the means od transport you are using. This has been an old demand from the Greens and in principle it has been agreed at the beginning of the term that its is to be introduced. Practically it will not change much, because most people who use public transport , declare in their tax declaration they are using a car going to work.
Johannes
Here is an article from todays FAZ on the subject:
Cabinet Approves Commuter Tax Exemption
F.A.Z. BERLIN. Germany's cabinet on Wednesday formally approved the compensation for high energy prices which the government had proposed. The commuter write-off, currently 70 pfennigs (about 32 U.S. cents) per kilometer for motorists, is to be raised to 80 pfennigs, regardless of the means of transport. A one-off heating-cost subsidy for low-income households is also planned.
The proposed draft law submitted by Finance Minister Hans Eichel, however, may still be rejected by the Bundesrat, the legislative body which represents the German states at the federal level. It is no surprise that several states governed by the opposition Christian Democrats or Christian Social Union disagree.
But Social Democrat state premiers are also asking for funds to compensate for the strain that the tax relief will put on their budgets. The planned subsidies would burden public budgets with DM3.2 billion ($1.4 billion) in additional costs next year: about DM1.5 billion at the federal level and about DM1.4 billion for the states. Local governments will pay for the rest, between DM250 and 280 million.
The SPD premiers of North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, Wolfgang Clement and Heide Simonis, urged the federal government to compensate the states. "Otherwise we won't agree in the Bundesrat. This should be taken very seriously," said Mr. Clement in Düsseldorf. Still, he said he was confident a solution could be agreed on with Mr. Eichel.
The cabinet also resolved to increase financial aid to students. The maximum monthly aid would be increased by 7.3 percent to DM1,105. This sum would be paid to students whose family's incomes do not exceed a maximum; for a married couple with two children in college, this maximum would be DM3,900 a month. Education Minister Edelgard Bulmahn of the (SPD said this would make education assistance calculable for young people who had not been born with a "golden credit card." She said she expected the reform to provide 80,000 additional students with what is called "BAföG" aid. In 1998, 11.3 percent of all students received this aid.
The cabinet also decided to postpone permanent civil servants' pay raises until several months after public sector raises go into effect. The higher brackets are to receive no raise this calendar year, while the lower brackets are to get four one-off payments totaling DM400. Civil servants can expect a raise of 1.8 percent on Jan. 1, 2001 and another of 2.2 percent a year later.
The steps to harmonize eastern and western German pay levels for civil servants are to match those agreed for blue-collar and white-collar workers. Pay packets in the east will rise to 87 percent of the western level on Aug. 1, 2000, to 88.5 percent in January 2001, and to 90 percent a year later.