For many years there have been political intentions to harmonize tax rates in Europe. As to capital income taxation, competition is often seen to be especially harmful. Facing a high degree of international capital mobility, every country is expected to reduce its tax rate in order to attract...

Eine Harmonisierung der Steuern auf Kapitaleinkommen wird häufig gefordert, weil sonst bei hoher Kapitalmobilität ein Steuersenkungswettlauf eintrete mit der Folge, dass der Staat seine eigentlichen Aufgaben nicht wahrnehmen kann. Tatsächlich sind die Indizien für ein "race to the bottom"...

It is often feared that tax competition might lead to a "race to the bottom". The consequence of a decline of tax rates on capital income would be shrinking capital income tax revenues and difficulties for national governments to perform their usual tasks. The paper analyzes what happened to tax...