Without any tax sovereignty of its own and faced with a substantial decline in the volume of its "traditional own resources", the EU is left with a very low degree of revenue autonomy. The EU budget is financed primarily from national contributions by the member states. There is a growing...

One aim of the first phase of the tax reform coming into effect in 2004 is to strengthen the economic recovery. One of its elements is a tax relief granted for retained profits of non-incorporated firms to further the formation of equity capital. However, since small firms and firms with low...

The new Austrian domestic Stability Pact aims at the achievement of a zero deficit until 2008. At the federal level, the Maastricht-relevant deficit is to be reduced to 0.75 percent of GDP, states and municipalities together are obliged to obtain a surplus of 0.75 percent of GDP in 2008. The new...

The 2004-05 tax reform and the after-effects of the stimulus packages, which were introduced as a counter-measure to the weak economic growth during the past three years, will increase the overall budget deficit to 1.9 percent of GDP in 2005. Transfer expenditures will gain in weight again. The...

The obvious difference in the economic performance of countries has led to the question why some countries are so much wealthier than others, and whether the size, the structure, and the organisation of the public sector contribute to cross-country income and growth gaps. Public sector...

Eine Reihe von westeuropäischen Ländern hat seit Mitte der 80er Jahre ihre synthetischen Einkommensteuersysteme hin zu einer so genannten dualen Einkommensteuer reformiert. Auch die meisten mittel- und osteuropäischen Transformationsländer führten gleich mit Beginn der Systemtransformation...

Der Bundesvoranschlag 2013 muss Konsolidierungserfordernisse und den anhaltenden Finanzierungsbedarf in wichtigen Zukunftsbereichen in Einklang bringen. Die Schuldenquote erreicht 2013 mit voraussichtlich 75,4% des BIP ihren Höchstwert und soll anschließend bis 2016 auf knapp 71% gesenkt...