The German government wants to introduce the active pension on January 1, 2026. In future, anyone over the standard retirement age (66 years and four months) will be able to earn an additional 2,000 euros per month tax-free. Instead of raising the retirement age, the massive tax savings of up to 919 euros per month are intended to provide a positive incentive to work longer. In principle, this is to be welcomed.
However, this unusually high tax concession should only apply to employees, not the self-employed. This is because they would continue to work anyway, according to the current draft law on active pensions from October 9, 2025: there is “currently no need for any further incentives … to encourage this group of people to continue working.
In our view, this is a blatant violation of Article 3 of the German Basic Law (“principle of equal treatment”).