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According to the estimate of tax receipts, tax revenues at all levels of government are expected to fall by more than a hundred billion in the 2020-2024 period.

Economic Affairs Minister Altmaier said: “The coronavirus crisis is tearing large holes in the federal budget. Today’s estimate of tax receipts also shows that the German economy is undergoing a deep recession. Thanks to the previous long-lasting upswing and our sound policies, we can prevent the loss of millions of jobs and make sure that our enterprises will survive this serious crisis. Our protective shields are effective, and we are further optimising them. We need follow-up provisions for companies that are particularly badly affected.

At the same time, we need a roadmap in order to overcome the crisis rapidly and return to a solid growth path. For this purpose, we must both coordinate a broad-based stimulus programme and carry out structural reforms. As successful enterprises are the basis for prosperity and jobs in the future, we need to create an environment that helps employees and enterprises master the relaunch so that we can enter a period of upswing as soon as possible. This includes targeted stimuli for investment by means of relaxed depreciation rules and tax relief measures as well as stimuli for consumer spending. We also need to cut red tape and accelerate authorisation procedures. My aim is to activate the self-healing powers of our economy with this fitness programme and to promote the economic recovery by modernising and transforming the economy, especially in terms of digitisation and future crisis resilience.”