Vorschläge zur Steuerreform in Deutschland: Was bedeuten sie? Was kosten sie?

Abstract

Tax reform in Germany is proposed by political parties as well as by specific research groups. The gross wage income distributions for different groups of taxpayers are used to find out the consequences of introducing alternative rules of taxation for the wage income tax revenues. The results are supplemented to gain an impression of the overall consequences of a tax reform for the public sector’s budget. It turns out that fundamental tax reform is possible without reducing overall tax revenues if all the tax expenditures are abolished.Tax reform, tax revenue simulation, wage income tax elasticity, tax expenditures