The idea of higher wealth taxes to finance the mounting public debt in the wake of the financial crises is gaining ground in several OECD countries. We evaluate the revenue and distributional effects of a one-time capital levy on personal net wealth that is currently on the German political...

We analyze the top tail of the wealth distribution in Germany, France, Spain, and Greece based on the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS). Since top wealth is likely to be underrepresented in household surveys we integrate the big fortunes from rich lists, estimate a Pareto...

We analyze the distribution and taxation of top incomes in Germany during the 1990s on the basis of individual tax returns data. We derive a measure of economic income from taxable gross income as reported in the tax returns. Thanks to complete sampling, we can deliver a very precise description...

Haushaltsstichproben wie die EVS spiegeln die Randbereiche der Verteilung nur unzureichend. Um die oberen Einkommensbereiche besser abzubilden, bietet sich eine Analyse der Einkommensteuerstatistik an, in der die "reichen" Haushalte bzw. Personen vollständig sind. Einkommenskonzept und...