Millions of Germans who expect to benefit from an income tax cut in 2010 could come up empty-handed after the finance ministry said on Monday it was seeking to recoup the revenue by raising levies on high earners.
Earlier this year, the constitutional court struck down the current tax treatment of health insurance contributions, saying taxpayers should be allowed to write a bigger chunk of contributions off their tax bill. The move carried an annual cost to the budget of up to €6bn ($9.5bn, £4.8bn).
