Steuerliche Spendenanreize: Ein Reformvorschlag

Summary In Germany, donations to charitable institutions can be deducted from the taxable income. The government subsidizes each donated Euro by the household′s marginal tax rate. Unfortunately, this system has some serious shortcomings. Therefore, the existing tax deduction of donations should be replaced by a uniform tax abatement rate. Such a reformed system would be more transparent than the existing system and it would lead to a price of donating that is equal for all households. Furthermore, the empirical analysis of this study has shown that for an abatement rate of roughly 50 % a positive (though small) fiscal effect occurs.