Distribution Effects of the German Fiscal Reform 2000/2005 Compared to the ,Karlsruher Concept - Effects on the Income Distribution of Self-Employed Persons (Liberal Professions, Entrepreneurs) and Employees

Abstract

The actual tax reform 2000/2005 and their alternative proposals are prominent in the actual economic and social policy discussion. The question of the individual impacts to the tax payers is pronounced in the political discussion beyond traditional taxation aims to cover public expenditures and to promote a just income distribution. Alternatively to the actual tax reform 2000/2005 in Germany the ‘Karlsruhe proposal’ is discussed, which tries to raise the transparency and thereby the taxation acceptance by a drastical simplification of the tax law. In this study we analyse and quantify by a microsimulation approach the distributional and redistributional income impacts to important societal groups of the competitive tax systems compared to the before tax reform situation. Our micro database is a 10% sample of the anonymised individual records of the actual available German Income Tax Statistic 1995 with ca, 3 mio. data records.

Note: Downloadable document is in German.

Keywords: Microsimulation, tax reform, distribution of income, redistribution, self-employed, liberal professions

JEL Classification: D30, D31, J23