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This proposal doesn't sit well with me, for various reasons.
First, how does it work for people who can't have children? Will they have to submit a test result proving it? What if a medically sterile person has a child by some unlikely happenstance (I've read it happens sometimes)? Do they owe back the unpaid taxes then?
I can imagine a scenario where such a person would elect to be sterilised or abort a fetus to avoid having to pay thousands of euros, leading to one less child being born.
Also, what about rich people? Isn't it time we start to tax them and punish the methods they use to avoid taxes?
Speaking of rich people: suppose they work out the added tax (if they even pay it, that is) is more than the cost of having a child. Would they have one and proceed to completely forego doing any parenting just for the sake of saving money? How will that child grow up?
If the purpose of the law is strictly to compensate from the strain a childless person puts on the pension system, and not to simply punish them for not having kids. Then I don't see the problem of involuntarily childless people getting taxed. The involuntarily and the voluntarily childless both get the same benefit of not having to pay for their kids and therefore would have the same ability to pay. And they both put the same strain on the pension system.
Taxing the rich is always good I agree. But regarding having kids only to avoid taxes. Do the pension payments really scale up to super rich level? Or do they have a max ceiling. I don't know exactly how Germany does it. But yes if the pension payments scale linearly with income that could be a major issue that's true.
The reason why a couple doesn't have children doesn't affect the financial situation. Hence anyone without children over the age of 23 has to pay more no matter the reason why they don't have children.
The point of the policy is not to punish anyone by the way, but to find money to care for the elderly. They just propose to take it from people who are at an unfair advantage right now. In Germany, having children means having less money than not having children.
Taxing the rich is something that the current German government is especially allergic to, so this policy is probably about the best we can have until the next elections.