Taxes and finances: What is fair?
In May and June 2025, a public debate will be held in the German city of Erfurt on the topic of tax and financial justice. From 24 March to 4 May, all interested parties were able to contribute to the discussion online.
The aim of the ‘Citizens’ debate on fair taxes and finances’ is to address one of the most challenging and at the same time most important topics of the upcoming federal government and to bring the discussion to the centre of society.
The participatory project is supported by a civil society alliance consisting of the Netzwerk Steuergerechtigkeit (Tax Justice Network), the Bund der Steuerzahler (Taxpayers' Association) and the NGO “Mehr Demokratie” association.
People feel deceived
To justify the citizens' debate, the initiators refer to a recent survey for the ZDF Politbarometer. Although a majority of respondents were in favour of the recently approved special fund of over 500 billion euros, almost three quarters of respondents stated that they felt deceived by Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU).
Merz had rejected high additional debt before the Bundestag elections on 23 February 2025. After the election, Merz changed his mind on this issue, citing the current political situation.
Amendment to the Basic Law passed
On 18 March 2025, the Bundestag passed several amendments to the Basic Law that would allow the federal and state governments to take on several hundred billion euros in new debt. The new debt will be used to finance defence and security and to strengthen infrastructure.
Money is also to flow into the transport and energy network, hospitals, educational facilities and digitalisation. In addition, funds from the special fund must be used to achieve climate neutrality by 2045.
Questions and answers
The citizens' debate starts with the issue of fair taxes and finances. It accompanies the new Bundestag during its first 100 days in office and makes suggestions from the centre of society on how taxes and finances can be made fairer.
The online participation in the citizens' debate on the participation platform make.org focused on two questions
- What can and do we want to afford as a society?
- And who should pay for it?
The answers centred on
- What tasks should the state take on?
- How should it finance them?
- What is feasible?
- What is fair?
Interested parties had until 4 May 2025 to submit their own ideas and vote on proposals from other participants in the online debate.
‘Making the topic discussable’
‘Special funds, billions for investments, softening of the debt brake - we are currently hearing this on all channels. But who feels they know their stuff and can have an informed say? We want to make the confusing topic of taxes and finances discussable with the sortition-based citizens‘ debate,’ says Roman Huber, Managing Director of Mehr Demokratie. He considers the citizens' debate to be the right instrument, as in his experience, sortition-based formats enable constructive processes for controversial and complex topics.
Under the key question ‘Who should pay for all this?’, 44 randomly selected citizens will debate their own ideas and values over two weekends in Erfurt from 28 May to 1 June and from 27 to 29 June. They will also hear presentations by experts and be presented with the proposals from the online participation.
Guidelines for tax and financial policy
The aim of the debate is to enable participants to discuss this complex topic in an informed manner. Instead of a fixed catalogue of recommendations, the aim is to highlight lines of conflict and discuss individual proposals using examples. The end result is a value-based overall picture with guidelines for tax and financial policy.
The results of the citizens' debate are then published and presented to politicians who are responsible or important for tax and finance issues in a public debate.
2,000 people randomly selected
In a first step, eleven cities and municipalities from all over Germany were selected to take part in the lottery: Bad Salzungen, Bannewitz, Hanover, Leimbach, Leimen, Neutraubling, Neuwied, Regensburg, Uetersen, Wenden and Wiesbaden.
A random sample of all registered residents aged 16 and over was selected from their population registers. Invitations to take part in the mini-public were sent to the 2,000 addresses obtained in this way on 4 April.
Representing the diversity of the population
The random selection creates a group of people that reflects the diversity of the population as closely as possible in terms of age, gender, geographical origin, size of place of residence, migration background, political affiliation to parties and attitude to taxes and finances. In addition, people who are otherwise not interested in politics should be targeted.
In order to address these people personally, volunteers swarmed out to the ten selected locations in April to approach the randomly selected people at their front door and invite them to take part once again. This door-knocking is intended to increase the number of responses to the written invitation and, above all, to reach people who would otherwise not take part. The door-knocking is organised by the experienced association ‘Es geht LOS’.
Allowance of expenses and reimbursement of costs
In a second step, the members of the Citizens' Debate are randomly selecte from the responses in which those interested in participating provide further personal details. The selection is made using a random algorithm, which ensures that the group reflects the diversity of the population.
All participants in the mini-public in Erfurt will receive an expense allowance of 600 euros for their commitment. Travel and accommodation costs will also be covered.
The Citizens' Debate is financially supported by the Robert Bosch Foundation, the Schöpflin Foundation and GLS Treuhand.
Feasibility study on citizens' assembly
Back in 2023, the Netzwerk Steuergerechtigkeit, with the support of the Robert Bosch Foundation, conducted a feasibility study to analyse the extent to which the topic of ‘justice and taxes’ is suitable for a federal citizens' assembly. A central part of this was a pilot project in which randomly selected participants discussed what they consider to be unfair in Germany. In addition, they jointly developed a proposed question for a future citizens' assembly: ‘Between performance and respect: How much inequality can democracy tolerate?’