Herausforderungen und Entwicklungsperspektiven des Steuersystems

We analyze the development perspectives of Germany’s and Austria’s tax systems, considering the massive economic and societal challenges of digitalization, economic inequality and climate change. Digitalization complicates taxation due to decreasing physical presence and increasing international mobility of tax bases. Since labor is internationally less mobile, taxes on labor income will remain an integral part of both countries’ tax systems. This is also true for the value added tax that taxes local consumption, which is internationally hardly mobile. In contrast, taxes on mobile corporate profits will tend to lose importance as long as tax competition is not effectively curbed by international co-operation. Therefore, taxation of corporate profits should be oriented to the individual final beneficial owners who tend to be largely immobile. Due to high compliance costs and possibilities for international tax avoidance, the wealth tax is inappropriate to tackle economic inequality. The estate and gift tax, without an exemption for business property, is better suited to reduce inequality. If taxation should serve as a means against climate change, a global uniform tax on CO2 is necessary. Its level should correspond to the envisaged emissions reduction. Since environmental taxes cannot be avoided in the short and medium term, the resulting distribution effects have to be considered