Germany's Bavarian Council of Ministers rejects municipal packaging taxes, as they 'would mean a further burden on the economy and our citizens’; Bavarias interior minister to submit corresponding draft law to introduce ban for municipal packaging taxes

May 16, 2025 (Al Bawaba Business) –

May 13, 2025

+++ The Council of Ministers today rejected municipal packaging taxes in the Free State at the proposal of Bavarias Interior and Local Minister Joachim Herrmann . A municipal packaging tax as a local consumption tax would mean a further burden on the economy and our citizens. As early as 1979, the state government and state parliament deliberately abolished such minor taxes in order to simplify the municipal submission system and to improve the economic framework, said Herrmann. We continue to stick to this. The minister announced that he would create legal clarity as quickly as possible and to submit a corresponding draft law to introduce a ban for packaging taxes in the Bavarian Local Tax Act. +++

According to Herrmann, such a packaging tax also contradicts other tax reliefs for the already heavily loaded catering industry, which would have to put such a tax on the citizens: In the coalition agreement of the new federal government, it is expressly agreed that sales tax for food in the catering trade as of January 1, 2026 is to be permanently reduced. A municipal packaging tax in the TO Go area would clearly undermine the goal of a fundamental and permanent relief for gastronomy.

In addition, the new tax would have another considerable bureaucratic effort due to record duties and difficulties of delimitation in practice. According to the minister, it must be determined in detail which facts are specifically recorded and which is not. This leads to absurd questions, such as whether a coffee mug without a lid is cheaper than with a lid. We dont participate in the Free State! Herrmann emphasized. We want to relieve the companies in every respect and not add additional burden. The introduction of a packaging tax would therefore be a completely wrong signal.

Even if the Ministry of the Interior has not yet been available to collect a packaging tax, Herrmann announced with regard to any municipal considerations: As the highest legal supervisory authority, we will not be given the necessary consent, so that the regional legal supervisory authority must reject the approval. regulate.

The background to the Ministerial Council is a decision by the Federal Constitutional Court of November 2024 on the packaging tax of the city of Tubingen and its effects on the Free State of Bavaria. In the departure of its previous case law, the highest court declared the packaging tax statute of the city of Tubingen lawfully, in particular contradicts these non -federal law requirements. However, this does not change the Bavarian position.