In light of the ongoing discussion on the erosion of the tax base in Germany, the relation between value added tax (VAT) revenues and their macroeconomic underpinnings is investigated. Based on a highly disaggregated classification of private consumption and specific government expenditures it...

In the tax policy debate, differentiation of value-added taxes is often justified by distributional concerns. Our quantitative analysis for Germany indicates that such concerns are misplaced. We find that the abolition of VAT differentiation has only negligible redistributive effects. Instead,...

Bei der Auslagerung staatlicher Tätigkeiten auf private Partner kommt es für den Bereich personalintensiver Dienstleistungen durch die anfallende deutsche Umsatzsteuer zu einer zusätzlichen Kostenbelastung, die die Hoheitsträger bisher oft von Outsourcing abhält. Für den Bereich der...

Mit dem Wachstumsbeschleunigungsgesetz vom Dezember 2009 ist ein drittes Maßnahmenpaket in die Wege geleitet worden, mit dessen Hilfe die Folgen des Wirtschaftseinbruchs im Jahr 2009 abgefedert bzw. diesen entgegen gewirkt werden sollte. Die darin enthaltenen steuerlichen Sofortmaßnahmen...

The closing of tax loopholes is one important instrument for fiscal consolidation. We concentrate on the value added tax exemption of banking services in Germany. The potential tax revenue under full value added taxation cannot be estimated from national accounting data, as it is necessary to...

Tax reform is a permanent topic of the economic policy debate in Germany. The paper presents a radical reform proposal (as well as a survey of other proposals) and describes some steps towards the realization of the proposal. The tax system proposed mainly consists of a value added tax, a flat...

The exemption for Value Added Taxation (VAT) can be used to pursue distributive objectives. Goods like food, housing, medicine, or infrastructure services (water, telecommunication, postal) are very often partially or totally exempted from VAT. The exemption of infrastructure services had been...

The German federal government presented a legislative proposal on tax- and especially VAT law with the focus to combat VAT fraud in (international) ecommerce on July 31st 2018. This draft legislation is explained and discussed.