Germany's federal tax revenues could exceed expectations by as much as 10 billion euros ($13.9 billion) this year and surpass forecasts again in 2012 as well despite slowing economic growth, Der Spiegel magazine reported on Sunday.
Quoting a Finance Ministry source, the magazine said that tax revenues for state and municipalities could also be a total of another 10 billion euros more than expected in 2011 thanks to the country's solid growth.
A spokesman for the Finance Ministry said an updated estimate on the 2011 tax take would not be known until the next tax estimate by independent experts is done in November but he said that the last estimate in May had already forecast an increase for 2011 of some 8 billion euros. "We've got to await the results of the November tax estimate," Finance Ministry spokesman Martin Kotthaus said. "But we were already eight billion euros ahead at the last tax estimate so an increase of 10 billion euros for the year can't be ruled out."
The German government last week cut its gross domestic product growth forecast for 2011 to 2.9 percent from three percent and its 2012 target to 1 percent from a previous 1.8 percent.