The Republic’s highest financial judge: Hans-Josef Thesling in front of the entrance to the Federal Fiscal Court.
Image: Picture Alliance
Hans-Josef Thesling is the highest financial judge in the republic. He leads the Federal Fiscal Court with a firm but steady hand – and writes a lot into the policy book.
Hans-Josef Thesling would have reason to tear his hair out. But that wouldn’t just be a little presidential. It would also not correspond to the nature of the 60-year-old President of the Federal Fiscal Court. The supreme court for tax and customs matters with its imposing, castle-like seat in Munich is not only geographically far away from the hustle and bustle of Berlin government. Thesling himself is also not the man who puts himself in the limelight emotionally for the politically interested public. “I see a focus of my work initially in the management of the house,” he says in an interview with the FAZ
But of course the Rhinelander, whose origin from Heinsberg can be heard with a “beßje”, carefully monitors what is happening in Berlin’s tax policy. Driven by the various crises, tax law is increasingly being used as a steering tool. This trend is not new. But the zeal to pursue social policy with the help of tax law is particularly great at the moment: be it to demand solidarity and justice with the help of an excess profit tax for so-called crisis profiteers or to get consumers to change their shopping and eating habits by reducing VAT on organic food.
