Saxony waives corona repayments for 9,000 companies

Around 9,000 self-employed people and small businesses in Saxony are already exempt from repaying emergency coronavirus aid. Around 90 percent of the more than 10,000 applications submitted since July 2025 have been approved, according to a statement from the Ministry of Finance. Only 280 cases were rejected. The remaining cases have yet to be processed.

Exemption for financially weak companies

Last July, the state parliament decided to ease the repayment of emergency coronavirus aid so as not to overburden companies. This included exemption from repayment claims. The total income from the 2023 tax return must be less than 35,000 euros net and assets must not exceed 40,000 euros.

In 2020, the federal government's coronavirus emergency aid was intended to cushion financial bottlenecks for micro-enterprises and the self-employed caused by the first coronavirus lockdown. In Saxony, over 84,000 recipients received more than 672 million euros. However, as they were often able to resume their activities much earlier than assumed when they applied, the grants were higher than provided for in the program.

Report-back procedure has been running since 2024

The Sächsische Aufbaubank (SAB) therefore asked all recipients to check the amount of their grants at the end of 2021 using a calculation aid. As a result, around 10,000 companies and self-employed people paid back 99 million euros. Three years later, the SAB launched a feedback procedure. This involved 49,000 recipients, two thirds of whom had to repay a total of 169 million euros. A further 7,000 voluntarily repaid funds.

According to the information provided, there are currently 7,100 appeals against the repayment notices, involving a total of 55 million euros. In addition, 85 court proceedings with a value in dispute of 570,000 euros are ongoing.