This one is in eigener Sache, as we say, as in: it’s personal – and it’s political. German government prides itself in supporting innovation, in promoting Germany as a ‘Land of Ideas’, and in nurturing the famous Mittelstand – the small companies and budding freelancers that push boundaries, develop new ideas and approaches. And a new approach is certainly needed when it comes to the social system and a pension scheme that will doubtlessly crack in the next decades due to the changing demographics. It’s been a long time coming and everyone knows it, and yet it’s a complex topic that no party dares to touch.
Certainly not a new approach is the proposed ‘Rewarding Life’s Work’ Law scheduled for 2013, which will force freelancers from the very beginning of their career to pay a fixed tax of at least a monthly €350 into the country’s pension system – a tax that increases with age, but is not related to your income. Needless to say, this will have some crucial effects on Germany’s cultural landscape. We are not politicians, and it’s not that we know the answers to a huge problem, but we do know that a magazine like mono.kultur would not exist if such a tax were in place.
Find out more here, or if you are registered in Germany, sign the petition for stopping the ‘Rewarding Life’s Work’ tax here.
