"Lines" in the tax system are demarcations of goods into different tax rate categories; tax rates may change discontinuously at a line. Geographic borders are a specific example of a line in the tax system. Using the example of geographic borders, I demonstrate how the permeability of the line...

The Government of India initiated a program in 1994 to promote manufacturing in districts designated as backward. The way the backward districts were identified enables us to employ a regression discontinuity design to evaluate the impacts of the program. We find that the program's 5-year tax...

The Government of India initiated a program in 1994 to promote manufacturing in districts designated as backward. The way the backward districts were identified enables us to employ a regression discontinuity design to evaluate the impacts of the program. We find that the program's 5-year tax...

The purpose of this paper is to assess whether politicians manipulate the timing of tax rate changes in a strategic way to maximize reelection prospects. To do so, we exploit the German local business tax as a testing ground which is set autonomously by German municipalities. As election dates...

Recent data on corporate tax losses presents a puzzle this paper attempts to explain: the ratio of losses to positive income was much higher around the recession of 2001 than in earlier recessions, even those of greater severity. Using a comprehensive sample of U.S. corporation tax returns for...

The paper analyses the impacts of occupational choice and entrepreneurial effort on the structure of wage, profit and capital taxation. Entrepreneurial effort is unobservable and therefore not tax-deductible. The optimal profit tax is less than unity even if individual entrepreneurial effort is...

The stance of fiscal policy in Germany changed in the course of 1999. Government expenditures were cut, significant tax reductions are intended. Fiscal policy fosters the growth of the economy. However, the tax cuts are by far not as large as is often argued; the plan to reform profit taxation...

The article outlines recent developments of German tax policy.

Die Reform der Unternehmensbesteuerung verfolgt das Ziel, mehr Investitionen und Arbeitsplätze in Deutschland zu halten und die Verlagerung von Buchgewinnen in Niedrigsteuerländer einzuschränken. Gleichzeitig sollen die Steueraufkommensverluste möglichst gering gehalten werden. Dieser...

In der EU findet im Bereich der Unternehmensbesteuerung ein Steuerwettlauf zwischen den Mitgliedsländern statt, der für eine tendenzielle Erosion sowie für eine gewisse Konvergenz der Unternehmensbesteuerung sorgt. Neben den nominellen Steuersätzen gleichen sich auch andere Charakteristika...