VW no longer expects tax demands in Germany related to diesel scandal

FRANKFURT Volkswagen does not expect the German government to make tax demands to cover revenue losses related to the carmaker’s diesel scandal, a company spokesman said on Saturday.

In Germany, motor vehicle taxes are tied to the volume of carbon dioxide emissions, among other things.

VW, Europe’s largest carmaker, has admitted using emissions-cheating software in a scandal that tarnished its image and left it facing billions of euros in fines and settlements.

Last year, Volkswagen promised to make up for tax revenue losses in Germany related to the wrong classification of vehicles but it now expects the government to refrain from seeking back taxes, the spokesman said, confirming a report in the weekly Der Spiegel.

The finance ministry said the final amount of motor vehicle tax could only be calculated when the regulatory authorities had made their assessment and added that further steps in this case are confidential under tax rules.

Germany’s Federal Office for Motor Vehicles is still due to publish a report on the results of new emission tests on Volkswagen models.

Volkswagen and its labor unions on Friday agreed to cut 30,000 jobs at the core VW brand in exchange for a commitment to avoid forced redundancies in Germany until 2025.

A senior German lawmaker on Saturday called for top Volkswagen executives responsible for the diesel scandal to return bonuses.

The German state of Lower Saxony, which owns 20 percent of voting rights, as well as former chairman Ferdinand Piech should press for bonus clawbacks, Michael Fuchs, a vice parliamentary faction leader from the conservative CDU party, told RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland.

The Volkswagen spokesman declined to comment on bonuses.

(Reporting by Arno Schuetze and Madeline Chambers; Editing by Dale Hudson)