Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

HEALTH

Cigarette sales drop to lowest numbers yet

Cigarette sales in Germany are at their lowest level ever though taxes are not taking the hit, new figures released on Monday by the Federal Statistics Bureau showed.

Published: 19 January 2015 08:55 CET
Cigarette sales drop to lowest numbers yet
Photo: DPA

In 2014, 79.5 billion legal cigarettes were sold, Destatis reported, continuing the trend of decline as more Germans butt out.

However, taxes taken from cigarette sales still netted €20.5 billion for government coffers. In 1991, 146.5 billion cigarettes were sold – nearly twice as many as in the last year – but only brought in €15.9 billion in taxes.

And while cigarettes continue to fall, other tobacco sales are finding new followers.

Cigar and cigarillo sales were up by 8.4 percent to 3.9 billion sales. Pipe tobacco also had a good year, with a 13.2 percent rise in sales to make up a total of 1,359 tonnes of the stuff sold.

On January 1, 2014, there was an increase in taxes on cigarettes and fine-cut tobacco. On the first day of 2015, those products saw another increase in the tax rates.

Consumers of pipe tobacco, cigarillos and cigars did not see the same rise in costs.

SEE ALSO: Balcony smoking times can be limited

 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

TAXES

Beskæftigelsesfradraget: What is Denmark’s employment allowance?

Denmark's government may soon announce changes to its tax reform plans, which will give all wage earners a bigger employment allowance. What is this and how will it affect foreigners' earnings?

Published: 30 October 2023 15:21 CET
Beskæftigelsesfradraget: What is Denmark's employment allowance?

What is the employment allowance? 

The Beskæftigelsesfradraget (from beskæftigelse, meaning employment, and fradrag, meaning rebate) was brought in by the centre-right Liberal Party back in 2004, the idea being that it would incentivise people to get off welfare and into a job.

Everyone whose employer pays Denmark’s 8 percent AM-bidrag, or arbejdsmarkedsbidrag, automatically receives beskæftigelsesfradraget. Unlike with some of Denmark’s tax rebates, there is no need to apply. The Danish Tax Agency simply exempts the first portion of your earnings from income taxes. 

In 2022, beskæftigelsesfradraget was set at 10.65 percent of income with a maximum rebate of 44,800 kroner. 

How did the government agree to change the employment allowance in its coalition deal? 

In Responsibility for Denmark, the coalition agreement between the Social Democrats, the Liberals and the Moderate Party, the new government said it would set aside 5 billion kroner for tax reforms.

Of this, 4 billion kroner was earmarked for increasing the employment allowance, with a further 0.3 billion going towards increasing an additional employment allowance for single parents.

According to the public broadcaster DR, the expectation was that this would increase the standard employment  allowance to 12.75 percent up to a maximum rebate of 53,600 kroner. 

How might this be further increased, according to Børsen? 

According to a report in the Børsen newspaper, the government now plans to set aside a further 1.75 billion kroner for tax reforms, of which nearly half — about 800 million kroner — will go towards a further increase to the employment allowance. 

The Danish Chamber of Commerce earlier this month released an analysis in which it argued that by raising removing all limits on the rebate for single parents and raising the maximum rebate for everone else by 20,300 kroner, the government could increase the labour supply by 4,850 people, more than double the 1,500 envisaged in the government agreement. 

According to the Børsen, the government estimates that its new extended allowance will increase the labour supply by 5,150 people.  

SHOW COMMENTS