In Germany, there are four different legal structures for employer-sponsored pension plans. Tax treatment at the firm level as well as at the level of the employee or pensioner differs between these four vehicles. This article evaluates and compares the tax benefit from comparable plans within...

This paper carries out an analysis of individual profitability of life insurance in form of endowment policies which have been very popular in Germany for several decades. We integrate taxes, transaction costs and the possibility of early termination into a model of capital budgeting. The aim of...

This paper discusses how payments from and contributions to a life annuity or a pension scheme can be taxed decision neutrally in the context of a classical income tax. We use the concept of "economic income" in the sense of Johansson and Samuelson. Within the framework of an economic analysis...

The purpose of this paper is to challenge the wide-spread view that investment in residential property in East Germany after unification has turned out to be a financial disaster in most cases by calculating (1) the after-tax return an investor in real property might have expected at the...

In a controlled laboratory experiment, subjects had to fold letters in order to earn money. While the net income per letter was the same in the three treatments, the gross income varied and the tax rate was 0, 25% and 50%. Although work incentives should be the same in all treatments, subjects...

We use a laboratory experiment to study the extent to which investors’ choices are affected by limited loss deduction in income taxation. We first compare investment behavior in the no tax baseline to a tax control setting, in which the income from investments is taxed. We find that investors...

In this paper we apply conjoint analysis as an empirical method to study the influence of tax labeling and tax earmarking on the perceived tax burden. As reference for the individual behavior we use the model of a rational utility maximizer described by the economic theory. We determine a...

We derive an ex post neutral comprehensive income tax on pension schemes equivalent to a Johansson-Samuelson tax that guarantees non-discriminatory treatment of lifetime-dependent and other investments. By separately taxing contributions and benefits, our concept does not require any assumptions...

Zum 1. Januar 2002 wurde mit der Einführung der so genannten Riester-Rente der Versuch unternommnen, zusätzlich zur staatlichen eine private Altersvorsorge zu etablieren. Für Prof. Dr. Hans Fehr, Universität Würzburg, ist der Einstieg in die private Altersversorgung misslungen, und zwar vor...

This paper explores cultural differences in risky choices between Australian and German students. The purpose of this paper is to challenge the wide-spread view that investment in residential property in East Germany after unification has turned out to be a financial disaster in most cases by...