Economics

Germany Moves to Scratch Reunification Tax Worth $21 Billion

  • Phaseout already budgeted and won’t generate deficit spending
  • Only roughly half of revenue lost as wealthy continue paying

The Berlin Wall falling, 1989. 

Photographer: Gerard Malie/AFP via Getty Images

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Nearly three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Germany is moving to eliminate the so-called solidarity tax that helped finance reunification.