The structure of income taxation in Germany implies that the marginal and the average tax rates will rise significantly in the next years - even if the increase of nominal incomes is modest. The elasticity of the wage income tax revenues with respect to gross wages amounts to about 1.86,...

We present a proposal for reforming unemployment assistance in Germany through the introduction of unemployment accounts (UAs). Instead of paying taxes that finance the unemployment assistance, employed people make ongoing contributions to their UAs and can make withdrawals from these accounts...