Ist die Zunahme der Staatsverschuldung ein Problem und ist es sinnvoll und möglich, die Staatsschulden zu tilgen? Manfred Overhaus, ehemals Staatssekretär im Bundesministerium der Finanzen, stellt ein Konzept vor, das die im Grundgesetz verankerte Schuldenbremse in eine Schuldentilgung, die...

Die Inkonsistenz und Defizite des deutschen Steuersystems werden allenthalben beklagt. Welchen Anforderungen müßte eine rationale Unternehmensbesteuerung genügen? Kann die Unternehmensteuerreform 2001, deren Eckpunkte Bundesfinanzminister Eichel Ende Juni bekanntgab, die Schwächen des...

Nach kontroversen Auseinandersetzungen haben sich die Mitgliedsländer der EU in diesem Juli in Feira auf einen Kompromiss bei der Zinsbesteuerung geeinigt. Welchen Kriterien muss eine Besteuerung der Zinseinkünfte entsprechen? Wie werden die Zinseinkünfte in der EU derzeit besteuert? Wie ist...

The tax burden in Austria is comparatively high, and the gap vis-à-vis the EU average has widened. The tax structure exhibits a number of specific features: taxes on labour are high, both from the employee's and the employer's side, following an upward trend and markedly exceeding the...

A key objective of a reform of the Austrian tax system should be the improvement of the tax structure. This includes a shift in the revenue composition away from certain tax bases (exoneration) towards other bases, implying their higher taxation. The latter should serve not only short-term...

In recent years Austrian family policy was aimed at improving individual work-life balances and increasing the participation of fathers. This included introducing child care benefit months that cannot be transferred between partners, adding a short-term income-dependent option to the original...

Family policies vary considerably, in their focus as much as in the instruments used, in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark, the countries chosen for the study. Germany's traditional type of family policy was fundamentally rehauled in recent years in order to boost female...

Real gross domestic product will expand by 2.2 percent per year during 2011-2015. The unemployment rate (according to the Public Employment Service Austria, AMS) will amount to 6.8 percent on average during 2011-2015. Due to increasing foreign and domestic labour supply labour market conditions...

With the trough of the recession following the global financial market crisis having been passed, fiscal policy is faced with the need to return to a sustainable path. The federal government targets a reduction of the general government deficit (in the Maastricht definition) below the ceiling of...