Consult this publication on line at

15
●
Article 115 Act
(Act on the Implementation of Article 115 of the Basic Law) – 
Artikel 115-Gesetz
(Gesetz zur Ausführung von Artikel 115 des Grundgesetzes):
This Act applies the debt brake
provisions of the Basic Law to the federal budget. In particular, the Act outlines how the
cyclical component of the budgetary position is to be calculated, and provides for the
“control account” for correcting deviations from budgetary plans. 
●
Article 115 Ordinance
(Ordinance on the Procedure for Determining the Cyclical
Component under Section 5 of the Article 115 Act) – 
Verordnung über das Verfahren zur
Bestimmung der Konjunkturkomponente nach § 5 des Artikel 115-Gesetzes (Artikel 115-Verordnung):
This ordinance gives further technical specifications for the calculation of the cyclical
element of the federal budget, relating in particular to the measurement of the output
gap and of the sensitivity of the budget to GDP changes. 
In summary, the legal basis of the budgeting in Germany is quite comprehensive, clear
and distinct, and shares many of the characteristics of other OECD countries. 
1.2. Annual budget process
The federal budget consists of the annual budget act and its appended budget
documentation. The budget documentation is very extensive and detailed and it includes
numerous summary and aggregate tables, as well as clarificatory notes (some of which
have binding effect) – see Box 2 below.
Box 2.
The federal budget
Under the legal and constitutional provisions (see Section 1.1 above), the federation must
adopt a Budget Act each year setting out its expenditures for the year ahead and how they will
be “covered” (financed) through revenues and any necessary borrowing. The draft Budget Act
is presented to, debated, amended and approved by, the 
Bundestag
(see Section 6): the consent
of the 
Bundesrat
(the upper house of parliament in which the 
Länder
are represented) is not
required (cf. Section 6.4).
Formally, the federal budget consists of the annual 
Budget Act
and its appended budget
documentation. The budget documentation contains a complete set of budgetary
information set out according to the schema outlined below.