With the help of a changed company car regulation, the SPD and the Greens want to make electric vehicles more attractive for companies. Getty Images
The SPD and Greens are introducing a company car regulation to make electric vehicles more attractive as company cars for companies.
The goal is a greater spread in the rates for flat-rate taxation, said a spokesman for financial policy for the SPD parliamentary group in the “Welt am Sonntag”.
For company cars with combustion engines, the one percent rule is to be turned into a 1.2 percent rule. For e-cars, the credit rate remains unchanged at 0.25 and 0.5 percent.
A company car regulation is intended to make electric vehicles more attractive for companies. This should also have a positive effect on the used car market for e-cars. However, the governing coalition disagrees on this.
The SPD and the Greens want to make company cars with combustion engines less attractive than electric vehicles. “Our goal is a greater spread in the rates for flat-rate taxation,” said Michael Schrodi, spokesman for financial policy for the SPD parliamentary group, of the “Welt am Sonnag”.
“For company cars with a combustion engine, we want to turn the one percent rule into a 1.2 percent rule. This also serves to reduce subsidies. For e-cars, the credit rate remains unchanged at 0.25 and 0.5 percent.” Schrodi justified the proposal, among other things, with the fact that there has been no used car market for e-cars so far.
“Changed company car taxation is an important tool so that in three to five years more electric vehicles will come onto the used car market at affordable prices,” said Schrodi. Because this has not been available up to now, people with low and middle incomes have usually had to switch to a car with a combustion engine.
The Greens are also aiming for a change in company car taxation in favor of electric vehicles. “We Greens want to guarantee fair taxation and can imagine, for example, dividing company cars into different classes according to the level of CO₂ emissions,” said Sascha Müller, the member of the Bundestag responsible for the topic of “Welt am Sonntag”.
Müller has not yet made any statement about the number of possible classes and the percentages that apply to them. This should be determined in negotiations starting in the autumn.
However, the Greens are not aiming to abolish flat-rate taxation, Müller continued. It is the simpler procedure compared to the logbook. “But de facto it is still a climate-damaging subsidy, because the rule tempts you to drive more privately and with a larger vehicle,” he said.
FDP against preference for electric cars
The FDP, on the other hand, rejects a stronger preference for company cars with electric drives. “Neither in the coalition agreement nor in the cabinet agreement on the federal budget is there a unilateral subsidy for the purchase of e-cars,” said Markus Herbrand, financial policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group.
The high number of registrations for electric cars and the long waiting times for the ordered vehicles did not give the impression that additional state stimulation would make sense. He advocated that “we hold back on making changes to the unbureaucratic company car taxation”.
Employees have to pay tax on the private use of the company car. You can either keep a logbook or opt for a flat tax deduction.
One percent of the purchase price of the vehicle must be taxed per month as a non-cash benefit. Electric cars and hybrid vehicles from the upper price segment are already subsidized by only including 0.5 percent of their gross list price in the calculation, electric vehicles with a list price below 40,000 euros even with only 0.25 percent.
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