This article describes the concept of a property levy („Vermögensabgabe“) of the German Green Party in the context of other property related taxes such as real estate tax and inheritance tax. It explains the advantages of a property levy in contrast to a property tax. Moreover, the...

Family entrepreneurs in all honesty cannot grasp this new concept. Just now, while we are still experiencing a worldwide financial and economic crisis, which has by no means been overcome yet, there is talk of increasing taxation of assets. In recent years, small and medium-sized and larger...

The reintroduction of a wealth tax in Germany would not contribute to more fairness in terms of the ability to pay principle. On the contrary: Since wealth in form of human capital is not taxed, a wealth tax would lead to a massive unequal treatment of people with the same ability to pay. The...

The ownership nationality of large US multinational companies plays an implicit but important role in the current debate over how such companies should be taxed. This paper identifies that role and investigates what is actually known about where these companies’ shareholders reside.

I argue that, on theoretical grounds, the discretionary component of taxation should be allowed to have different effects than the automatic response of tax revenues to macroeconomic variables. Based on a novel dataset, I show two results. First, responses to a tax shock that allow for a...

Each year the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal publish the Index of Economic Freedom. This major study compiles economic data on more than 150 countries. The compilers divide the data into ten categories, ranging from business freedom to labor freedom. One of the ten categories is...

Each May, Forbes magazine publishes a study on tax misery. The Forbes Tax Misery Index is a proxy for evaluating whether tax policy attracts or repels capital and talent. It is computed by adding the top marginal tax rate for the corporate income tax, individual income tax, wealth tax,...

Profits-only partnership interests grant service-providing partners an interest in the profits of a partnership but not its capital. Such interests are a proverbial double-edged sword: they create economic arrangements needed in business, but provide opportunities for inequitable tax reductions....

Kann die gegenwärtig diskutierte Einführung einer Vermögensteuer zu größerer Steuergerechtigkeit führen, oder belastet sie den Standort Deutschland? Wolfgang Scherf, Universität Gießen, hält die Vermögensteuer für ungerecht, ineffizient und überflüssig. Für Christian Waldhoff,...

In the last decade of the 19th century, the United Kingdom, France and Spain established progressive rates in their succession taxes. This paper compares the legislative processes that France and Spain countries followed in this matter. In both cases politicians arguments for and against...