Zur Gewerbesteuer gibt es eine Reihe von Reformvorschlägen, die von einer reinen Gewinnsteuer bis zu einer Wertschöpfungsteuer reichen. Entsprechende Besteuerungskonzepte sind auch im Ausland anzutreffen. Analysen mit dem Unternehmensteuer- Mikrosimulationsmodell BizTax des DIW Berlin zeigen...

The paper empirically analyzes the incentive effects of equalizing transfers on business tax policy by exploiting a natural experiment in the state of Lower Saxony which changed its equalization formula as of 1999. We resort to within-state and across-state difference-indifference estimates to...

The 2008 Corporate Tax Reform Law was passed by the parliament in July 2007. It also reforms the trade tax. This applies both to the rate and to the tax base. In future, not only the interest on permanent debt will be included in the tax base, but also all interest paid as well as the financing...

German corporated companies are taxed with a federal corporation tax and with a local busi-ness tax. The latter has a similar, but broader tax base (including e.g. 25% of interest pay-ments) and its tax rate is set independently by every municipality including the so called city-states...

In the German system of fiscal equalization Länder (States) with tax revenue below the average get payments from the Länder above the average. The difference between the average and the own tax revenue per capita will be compensated up to 75%. To prevent Länder from getting payments form...

One of the most pertinent reform discussions in Germany is found in the debate on the local business tax. During the last year, two basic reform proposals, a 'revitalisation' of the current local business tax and its replacement by a surcharge on personal and corporate income taxes, intensively...

Using the German local business tax as a testing ground, we empirically investigate the impact of firm agglomeration on municipal tax setting behavior. The analysis exploits a rich data source on the population of German firms to construct detailed measures for the communities' agglomeration...