Protests, price rises: What to expect from 2024

I've made some predictions for 2024... let's see how accurate they turn out to be.

Photo by Nicole Avagliano on Unsplash

Dear Reader,

I’ve spent the past few days studying Olaf Scholz’ sweaty palms to understand what secrets the next year holds. And I’m afraid to tell you that I didn’t like what I saw.

Let’s at least start with the good news…

Hurrah! tax relief

One of the few good tidings for the year ahead is impending cuts to income tax.

Last year, finance minister Christian Lindner hoped to win voter’s hearts by announcing €10 billion in tax relief. At the beginning of this month, he offered another round of tax cuts as compensation for the bitter pills people will have to swallow elsewhere in life (see below).

Starting in January, income up to the level of €11,784 will be completely tax free. To give a sense of what that means, someone with no children on an average salary (€39,000) will have €25 more on the netto side of their pay slip at the end of the month.

Meanwhile, there is good news for the upper middle classes, too. The top tax rate will be raised to €66,700 an…