Spouse splitting: Olaf Scholz relativizes Klingbeil advance

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has put his party leader Lars Klingbeil’s initiative to abolish spouse splitting into perspective. Spouse splitting is the legal situation in Germany, but “of course there are always discussions as to whether it is disproportionate, especially for those who earn a few hundred thousand euros a year,” said Scholz last night at a citizens’ dialogue in Füssen, Bavaria. “But for the average earner, no one is going to propose a worsening of what the tax burden is now. I think that’s always very important for classifying the discussion.”