Taxpayers' Association presents new black book

The lobby association Association of Taxpayers accuses the federal government, states and municipalities of being careless with their tax money. In its new “Black Book 2026/27”, the association presents 100 cases again. “In this sense, the Black Book is also a contribution to the fact that we need to strengthen democratic structures,” said President Reiner Holznagel at the presentation in Berlin. More control and transparency must be promoted, and politicians must also explain and justify why decisions are made, said Holznagel.

“Poisoned Gifts”

This time the association is placing particular focus on “poisoned gifts”. He looked at government funding programs. It is criticized that funding and deadlines are sometimes the deciding factor when it comes to spending, rather than need and benefit. Sometimes funds are spent because they would otherwise expire. “The federal and state governments must set a time limit on their funding programs, coordinate them better, check them regularly and cancel them if they are not effective,” demanded Holznagel. The lobby association also criticizes complex procedures, possible follow-up costs for municipalities and a lack of transparency.

In addition, the current “Black Book” is about a particularly expensive fence, designer furniture in a job center, a bicycle garage only for state employees with a calculated cost of more than 16,000 euros per parking space, five tree plantings for a six-figure sum and work laptops for teachers, some of which were not switched on.

Black book is controversial

The Taxpayers' Association is a private association that politically advocates, among other things, the efficient use of tax money and solid state finances, i.e. it questions the federal government's new debt and spending. He lobbies for this in the Bundestag and with highly publicized campaigns. The Taxpayers' Association emphasizes that it is politically neutral.

But the so-called Black Book is controversial. One criticism is that it only lists spectacular individual cases, but often ignores their context and does not paint a representative overall picture of tax waste. Authorities and municipalities named therein often defend themselves against the allegations and justify their financial decisions.